MSMP 144: Skye Barbour on Building a Team to Grow a Sustainable Business

Mads Singers Management Podcast

Joining me on today’s episode of the Mads Singers Management Podcast is none other than Skye Barbour. Growing up with entrepreneurial parents, Skye knew she wanted her own business. Still, unlike her parents, she didn’t want to follow in their footsteps where she had to give up something to pursue her dreams. Skye wanted the best of both worlds. Skye wanted to earn great money and be a present and great mother to her children. Because of her experiences, Skye was able to see what real-life leadership was like, complete with challenges in handling people and operations. She even got to make all the mistakes under the sun, but Skye could grow a long-term sustainable business despite all these. Skye knew she had to leap after experiencing burnout and being pregnant with her first child.

While the allure of being a freelancer or being able to work on your terms will never stop, to balance those things and live the life you want, you’ll need to have discipline and roll up your sleeves from time to time to get things done. But to reach your goals, you’ll need to get some people on board as well because you can’t be the only one doing everything as this will only hinder the growth of your business.

As Skye pointed out, people can be so frightened of what might be the future that we stay stuck in the doing, and although you can automate and delegate a bunch of things in your business, it takes time and needs development.

While everybody is replaceable, as it should be, because businesses need fresh brains and hands from time to time, having a throwaway culture in outsourcing can cause problems for your business. Hiring a VA can help solve many things for you, but if you don’t have systems or SOPs in place, they will struggle too; sometimes, the problem doesn’t lie with the VAs you hire but within yourself.

Management doesn’t necessarily need to take an extended period. However, you will need to have the right person or the right people to get things done for this to be successful. Once implemented, your business will be smooth sailing in a month or two!

Understanding your core strengths and having a growth mindset will help you become a great leader.

To make sure your business is successful, you’ll need to be able to write down your recipe and pass it on to people so they know how to run your business. This is especially true when your business is your brand. Hire experts that can lighten your burden so that your business can grow and flourish, and ultimately it’s about moving you from doing the tasks in the business.

Key Learning Points:

1. Skye says that to grow a long-term sustainable business, this is what she calls the missing link who want to - 01:58
2. Skye says she is an advocate of applying herself and doing the work. This means that you’ll need to roll your sleeves up and work 03:32
3. Mads shares that he has been living remotely since 2014, and while it has its perks, he says that to work from the beach or to live the life you want will require discipline. - 06:16
4. Mads says he asks people if they want to build a business or build themselves a very glorified, well-paid full-time job because the difference between those two is vast. - 08:08
5. Mads says that once business leaders and managers get the mindset right, they realize that they shouldn’t be doing unnecessary work- 11:50
6. Mads says that when it comes to hiring people when you treat your staff as a cheap resource, they will also treat your work as an affordable resource. - 18:54
7. Skye says that regardless of who you bring into your business, you should invest time and resources in them if you want to get the best out of them. - 20:54
8. Mads says that anyone can be a good leader as long as they understand their core strengths- 26:36
9. Skye agrees that there isn’t a silver bullet solution. If you don’t understand your people and what resonates with them, then they will not be able to do a good job- 30:16
10. Skye shares her analogy where business is like a car where people parts of a vehicle and to get to the destination, many leaders and business owners expect and assume that their staff don’t need to know, she asks how people will do their best when they don’t know what’s going on or what the whole things for - 32:31

Resources Mentioned:

Full Freedom for Entrepreneurs with Skye Barbour

Connect with Skye Barbour:

LinkedIn

Website

Instagram

YouTube

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