Are you crushing it? Or is it crushing you?
You’ve created something amazing. Something the world has said yes to in a big way. Investors back your vision. Customers are intrigued with your offering. You look around and somehow you’ve taken something from a spark of an idea to a growing company.
But with all of this growth, you’ve got new challenges. Things that were pretty easy in the early days have suddenly gotten a lot harder.
You’ve got a bigger team.
You may have investors and a board. You are making bigger decisions with more expectations and more pressure to grow faster.
You’ve never led something like this and you’re learning on the fly.
At heart, you are a creative and a visionary not a business operator.
Some days you realize you are over your skis and hope no-one notices. You’re reading book after book to come up to speed on leading a business at scale.
But it’s hard to get a handle on everything. Issues pop up like an unrelenting game of whack-a-mole. An HR issue. A product or service fail. An ongoing problem with a key team member. A tough sales quarter.
The things that worked in the earlier days are not scaling. Grinding long hours and putting the rest of your life on the back-burner has got you nearing burn-out and wondering how anybody does this.
THE SECRET OF
ROCKET SHIP COMPANIES
Yet, you see other Founders leading their fast-growing companies, and they seem to have it figured out.
Everything seems simple and clear.
They’ve nailed their customer growth models.
Their management team is firing on all cylinders.
They execute consistently, even in the face of challenges
They excel at driving accountability and growing leaders within their companies.
And in the the midst of all this, these Founders seem centered and grounded. They are able to to zoom out and think strategically instead of being in the weeds all the time.
They have time and space to take care of their physical and mental health – without neglecting the key relationships in their lives.
How do they do it?
Here’s the secret: They’ve made the transformation from founder to Rocket Ship CEO.
HOW TO BECOME A ROCKET SHIP CEO
How do they do make that happen?
You probably have the title of Founder or (Co-Founder) and CEO. The reality is they are two different jobs. You get to be a Founder just by starting something.
But becoming a CEO, and better yet, a Rocket Ship CEO, requires that you transform as your company grows.
When you are in the midst of it, when you are grinding long hours and fighting fires, it can feel really fuzzy and daunting, especially for a first-time founder.
How do you become the CEO your company needs when you’ve never done it before?
You just need to know the rules.
I know because I’ve been there. When I was a first-time founder, I suffered many painful lessons as I led my company from idea to multimillion dollar exit.
Along the way, I relentlessly tried to come up the CEO curve. I read book after book, I had a coach, and even though I succeeded, I made mistake after mistake that drove me to the edge of burnout and failure.
After nearly two decades of leading, studying, and coaching Rocket Ship companies and founders, I’ve developed a system for helping founders optimize their companies and themselves.
This system is not abstract or theoretical. It is based on hard-won lessons from being in the Founder seat.
It is pragmatic and immediately applicable to wherever you are right now. This is the MBA I wish I had when I was a first-time founder. This is the stuff you really need to master to create and guide a Rocket Ship.
Stuff like how to:
- Create simplicity in every part your company (the key to scaling!)
- Consistently hire the right people for the right seats.
- Deal with co-founder issues
- Master compelling customer journeys to create reliable revenue.
- Ensure the team is aligned and bought in on the vision, current milestones and the plan
- Foster a culture of accountability that can execute in the face of even the biggest challenges.
- Turn uncomfortable HR conversations into positive coaching
- Actually hold effective meetings
- Keep yourself whole and healthy in the midst of the roller coaster of leading your business.
DO YOU
BECOME
THE CEO
YOUR
COMPANY
NEEDS?