Are You Robbing Your Team?

Meet Host, Mary Grothe

Mary Grothe is a former #1 MidMarket B2B Sales Rep who after selling millions and breaking multiple records, formed House of Revenue®, a Denver-based firm of fractional Revenue Leaders who currently lead the marketing, sales, customer success, and RevOps departments for 10 companies nationwide. In the past year, they've helped multiple 2nd stage growth companies between $5M - $20M, on average, double their MRR within 10 months, resulting in an average ROI of 1,454% and an average annual revenue growth eclipsing $3.2 million.

Don't Have Time to Listen, Read The Full Transcription.

[Theme music plays]

Mary Grothe: Hey everyone, this is Mary Grothe - Founder and CEO - and you're listening to the Revenue Radio® podcast brought to you by House of Revenue®. Each week, we'll talk about common revenue challenges and how to get past them, share real-world experiences, and get a glimpse into my life as a CEO scaling my own business. If you're a struggling entrepreneur, or just an entrepreneur looking to be inspired, this podcast is for you. I'll give you honest, unfiltered, and practical insights into growing your business and getting past your revenue plateau.

[Theme music ends]

Last week, we got technical. We dove into Revenue Operations. This week, I was so moved by something my pastor said at church. We're going to shift our direction a little bit today, but I promise you, it's just as good as revenue scaling information. My pastor, one of the churches we belong to, is expanding and building. They're in a build campaign right now. They are raising money to expand the building. He told a story yesterday that was very moving. I understand why he shared the story. Clearly, it was to inspire people to want to give.

I heard something different when I was listening to the story. As I was sitting there digesting his words, something else was present for me. I knew I needed to speak about this today and record this for you. The story is as follows. Our pastor talked about no gift is too small that even the slightest contributions can have a huge impact. To paint a picture around that, when he was younger, his original church, before he went off and started his own, also did a build campaign, and they were expanding. That pastor was asking people to give.

At the end of the service, an older lady, 80 years old, came up and handed the pastor a ring. The ring was missing a couple of stones. It was old, but she gave it to him and said, "This is all that I have of value if there's even any value, but this is all that I have. You may have it." She didn't know if that was going to create any impact or not, but really, it was all that she had. So he took this ring, and he was so impressed by her. Giving it was really the only thing of value. He then took that ring and told the story.

There are different groups of the church. One of those groups was a business group inside the church so business owners and local business communities who are members of the church would meet. He shared the story, and one of the business owners in the group said, "I will pay you $10,000 for that ring but the $10,000 towards the build campaign. I don't want the ring, though. I want you to keep the ring. I want you to present it to the next group and see if you can get someone else to buy it from you."

Well, this went on and on and on and on. It caught on just like the Starbucks drive-thru, pay it forward, or someone buys your training. So you buy the people behind you in the drive-thru, you buy their drinks. This continued that ring ended up raising a million dollars for this church. The pastor went after this ring tickets course. This pastor went to the lady's house to thank her and share this story with her. When he went into our tiny apartment, as the story goes, the 80-year-old woman really had anything barely. In fact, she was sleeping on a mattress on the floor. 80 years old. Immediately, the pastor said, "No, not on our watch." So they furnished her apartment. They made sure she had everything that she needed.

It's just a beautiful little ending to the story. The part that stood out for me as a CEO, a leader, and how I want to pull you in here and your direct responsibility. What resonated with me in the story and what became present for me is the days when I feel like I don't have a lot left to give, whether I'm tired. I have a lack of abundance of time, meaning I've been scheduled back-to-back. Those moments where I second guess giving even the tiniest, whether just stopping for a minute. Being present with a team member, pausing to have a genuine conversation, not discarding it, rushing to the next thing, or brushing someone off. I think about the tiniest of a gift and how it can multiply.

As a CEO, as a leader of 21 people, it is my responsibility to be a conscious giver, to take all the joy, goodness, gladness, and everything that bubbles up to the top for the remarkable work that our team does is doing. My responsibility is not just to take all of that, have my entrepreneur high, and go off into the sunset. I need to bottle that backup. I need to channel it back into our team and into our people.

I think about the ring story and how often I say I don't have enough to give or anything to give in this moment. I just have my head down. I'm trucking along. I'm working. I'm performing. I'm doing what I need to do for my responsibility. How many moments and gifts am I missing? Because I'm not consciously present in the moment and giving back.

I started to feel convicted when I heard this story. Do I look past the small gifts, save up my generosity, and energy for the big moments? Do I miss out on the tiniest of opportunities to bless someone's day by giving them my time, by giving them my acknowledgment, by powerfully and strategically answering a question for them, and by helping them navigate a challenging situation? Or do I deflect, delegate or not even appear available, so they don't even come to me in the first place? Have I isolated myself? Am I sitting on the proverbial ivory tower disconnected from my team? I don't think so. My desk is out in the middle of the open area. I don't have an office. I sit with everybody else.

But what's my demeanor? Am I heads down staring at my computer? Am I approachable or not? What tiny gifts am I not giving that could genuinely have an unbelievable multiplication effect a ripple through each person in the company? It doesn't stop there. Just like this ring being sold over and over and over again. Going from $10,000 to a million dollars. It was the same ring. What could I do to invest in someone on my team through acknowledgment, conversation, being genuine, spending time with them strategically, thoughtfully helping them solve problems investing in them, or just being a friend?
I think about the impact that it could have that day on them in their psyche, energy, outlook, and passion. When they tell their spouse that they had a great day and that they love their job, they were impactful? They then turn around and inject right back into their own team, their clients, and their client's teams. Then what happens when they have a good day, and they go home to their significant other and their kids? What if that one tiny seed, that one little moment that I consciously made time for and gave a tiny, small gift? What could it turn into when they came home?

They can talk about how they did remarkable work today and its impact. That joy and gladness then breathe life into the evening with that family. My team member gets to have an enjoyable, stress-free evening because they're proud of themselves. They worked hard. They had great outcomes today. Then, how does that bleed into their family into their significant other? Well, the opportunities are endless at this point. That is life, giving. It's all from one tiny gift.

As a CEO, leader, and entrepreneur, we get busy. We get stressed, bogged down, and get to a point where we might drown in the day-to-day. The To-do list never ends. Not only could that turn into not having time and attention for our team, but what are we robbing them of? What gifts are we not giving because we're waiting for that annual company party to say something nice about someone in the handout and award? We're waiting for the big quarterly event to prepare a great agenda. Then finally, our team has our time, energy, and attention. For two days at a 90, what are we waiting for? These tiniest small gifts when we just give that last ounce of what we have at that moment in that day. Could we not inject power into our people into our teams and produce remarkable outcomes?

That's what I took away from the story. I sat there convicted, and I love what gets imprinted on my heart. While I'm listening, thank you to the Holy Spirit that I go to church to plug into the source to be fed. I never know what I'm going to come out with. Now here's how I'm showing up to this week. I'm going to challenge myself because you have to do something different to get a different outcome. To do something different, you have to be truthful and identify what you do, so I look at my daily habits. I know where I get busy. I know when my head goes down. I know when I don't make time. I know where I'm missing out.

I did that reflection. I have made a list. As I go into this week, I am clear. I have specifically identified gaps in my calendar this week, where I will be around my team, and I will be present. I also looked at the calendar and got ahead of having a big event this week. I have filming this week for our Revenue Academy®. We're launching a new course. I got an all-hands meeting. I got a team meeting. I have a nice variation of meetings on my calendar this week. I'm looking at them. I'm looking at the lineup of who I'm going to be around. I'm intentionally, purposefully, already identifying the tiny gifts I can give this week because I want to be intentionally generous. I want this week to give my ring. I want to see that ring, that small gift, multiply throughout the company.

I challenge you as a CEO, entrepreneur, or leader. Do you give them small gifts? Or do you just run through your day and power past those tiny little opportunities? Are you robbing your people of joy, gladness, goodness, excitement, a feeling of value camaraderie collaboration because you're just steamrolling through your day? If you are, I challenge you to channel your 80-year-old woman inside of you who sleeps on a mattress in her apartment and gives the one item of value as she has.

[Theme music plays]

Thanks for listening to today's episode. If you're interested in being on our show or want to learn more about how we can help you scale your company, connect with us at houseofrevenue.com or with me Mary Grothe spelled G-R-O-T-H-E on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Instagram.

Connect with House of Revenue® on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

[Theme music ends]