Why Sole Founder Dependency Destroy Businesses - Maggie Lord
Maggie Lord, entrepreneur, author, Founder of Rustic Wedding Chic, and Co-Founder of The Whisper Group, shares insights on building a scalable media company, creating multiple revenue streams, reducing founder dependency, preparing for a successful acquisition, and navigating life after an exit. Drawing from her journey of growing Rustic Wedding Chic from a simple wedding blog into a category-leading brand acquired by David's Bridal, Maggie shares practical lessons every founder can use to build a business that's valuable, transferable, and built to last.
Takeaways
How Maggie transformed a personal blog into a category-leading media company with multiple revenue streams.
Why exit planning should begin years before you ever plan to sell your business.
How systems, documentation, and reducing founder dependency increase business value.
Why authentic partnerships and diversified revenue streams create stronger, more resilient companies.
How Maggie strategically positioned Rustic Wedding Chic for acquisition and what she learned after successfully exiting the business.
Chapters
00:00 Meet Maggie Lord and the story behind Rustic Wedding Chic
04:20 When a passion project became a real business
06:00 Building multiple revenue streams and a scalable media company
11:35 Founder dependency, systems, and preparing for an exit
17:10 Inside the David's Bridal acquisition journey
22:45 Life after selling a business and building The Whisper Group
26:00 Operator Stack: Profitability, leadership, hiring, and scaling decisions
This episode is proudly sponsored by Sell Ready AI.
At Sell Ready AI, we help founders build businesses that are easier to scale, more profitable to operate, and ultimately more valuable to buyers. Through AI, automation, systems, and operational strategy, we reduce founder dependency and help transform growing companies into businesses that can thrive without their owner.
Whether you're planning to sell in the next few years or simply want to build a stronger, more efficient company today, being "sell ready" means being prepared for every opportunity.
Learn more and see how sell-ready your business is by visiting https://sellready.ai/
And remember, Always Be Sell Ready!
Transcript:
Alyssa Allen (00:00.656)
Welcome to Sell Ready Podcast. Today's guest is Maggie Lord, entrepreneur, author, and founder of Rustic Wedding Chic. Maddie built a niche wedding blog into a category-leading brand with multiple revenue streams, millions of readers, and a strategic acquisition from David's Bridal. So in this episode, we're gonna be unpacking what it really takes to build a company that buyers actually won. So the story behind the scenes and lessons that every founder can apply and increase.
value of their business. So welcome, Maggie. Happy to have you here. Yeah. Yeah. Same here. Same here. Very excited. I I'd like to like dig deep. Let's let's dig deeper into like can you take us back to the moment where you like actually started rustic writing sheet.
Maggie Lord (00:33.986)
Thank you. I'm so excited to be with you.
Maggie Lord (00:47.342)
Яс а
It was two thousand and eight. I was twenty six years old. and I started with no business plan. I was finishing up grad school and I was actually teaching part-time as well. and I really was I was engaged and I was struggling to find what I needed. And I was struggling to be able to communicate my vision to my wedding vendors. Now, if you go back to two thousand and eight, this was before Pinterest and before Instagram and some of those modern tools that we have now. and so I was really we were stu
stuck in this moment between wedding magazines were still a thing and yet you know like online wedding inspiration wasn't all the way there to the way it is today.
And so I was struggling to communicate my vision to my vendors and I started looking around online and I really wasn't finding a platform that showcased what I needed. And so I was like, I'll just start a very simple blog. A lot of personal blogs were starting around that time. And I thought I could do that. and when I started that, we we started to see a readership really, really quickly about wedding planning, inspiration, ideas, DIY ideas, and then of course how to find vendors who were gonna bring your vision to life. and so we started it quickly.
had no formal business plan, like I said, and you know, day by day was building and bootstrapping. and I'd say within that first year from the time we started to make, you know, one year in, we had a very strong revenue source from advertisers and we had a very strong readership.
Alyssa Allen (02:19.252)
Love it. I love it. And you were teaching part time, what were you teaching?
Maggie Lord (02:23.18)
I was teaching middle school science.
Alyssa Allen (02:24.8)
Okay, I love it. I love it. So that's that's great. I I mean that's so so diverse too. So middle school science too, having a wedding blog, that that's interesting. And and you were in were you in grad school for education as well?
Maggie Lord (02:37.602)
I was not I was in grad school for I was getting my masters in organizational leadership with a focus on nonprofit actually. so I thought that might be the the way that I would see my career going. but I've always been an entrepreneur at heart and so starting Rustic Wedding Cheek was just one of the many, many, many small I thought it was gonna be a small business that I had started and kind of fostered for a little bit and enjoyed that experience, but it turned into a full time job very quickly.
Alyssa Allen (03:03.454)
Yeah, yeah. And so you had other small businesses before before the blog. Tell me a little bit more about the other ventures you had.
Maggie Lord (03:10.036)
My ventures go back to five years old. My first entrepreneurial journey was into what was called Maggie's Shell Shop. And I would go and collect shells on the beach and clean them and buff them up when I was five and six years old and then sell them to friends and family in like these beautiful cases that I would display them in. but I had a variety of different things, whether I had been I had done some consulting work, I had done some social media strategy before on the side. and so I had all these little small little things, but when Russ.
Sheet came along, it really became my full passion. And then we saw, we were able to monetize it very quickly. And from there, I was able to really take the the leap and have it be my full-time job.
Alyssa Allen (03:50.1)
Right, yeah. I I I love that. you're always an entrepreneur at heart. You can tell you can tell when someone is like truly passionate about that a as well. Like I grew up in a in a similar manner. I I used to do movie night and and sell my family tickets. I used to upcharge for slices of pizza, five dollars a slice, popcorn that was just cooked downstairs. and I I did that at a very young age alongside my brother. So I I I love that you you started at the, you know, sheer age of just five years old. so
Maggie Lord (04:04.024)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Alyssa Allen (04:19.507)
I always say that someone's like really good business is when they're solving a problem for theirself, right? And so when when you when you were starting it, did you even think about selling one day? It sounds like it just was gonna be another one of your small businesses or ventures that you were doing, right?
Maggie Lord (04:34.636)
Yeah, no, it wasn't until a couple of years in, that I started to realize, okay, this is a really you know, the the revenues is great, right? We were having great revenue and
i the the community that we had built, the readers that, you know, loved us and we started we got a licensing deal, publishing deal, right? There was a lot of parts of the company that were were really exploding. I did not really think of it as a sellable asset until I'd say probably about five years in when I was like, okay, I need this to be less founder dependent and I need to build it so that
if I want it to be transferable one day, I can. So I'd say it was about five years in that I started to think, I don't know if I could keep it forever. I loved it. It it provided great work-life balance. the team that I had around me was fantastic. But I did start to see that if I needed to build it in a way that if I wanted to exit, I had to do that earlier in the process because exit planning starts way sooner than when you start to think about the exit. If you just think about exit planning when you're there, when you're ready,
you know, you really haven't set the foundation for a good exit.
Alyssa Allen (05:41.898)
Yeah, yeah, and I I really want to get into that as as well. after we kind of work through your story about like what does it look like setting the foundation for a good exit. looking back, what are the biggest milestones that you saw that really transformed your business from a blog to a real business? All right. Well, what are like what are some of those those milestones?
Maggie Lord (06:02.508)
Yeah. So I'd say about a year into business, we transformed ourselves from a personal blog into a media company, right? And we diversified our revenue streams. and I'd say that, you know, the next big milestone for us was about I'd say maybe 15 months into business, I landed a publishing deal and wrote over the course of the time that I was at Rustic Wedding Chic, I wrote six books on wedding planning and wedding inspiration. So that
was a huge thing because it allowed us to talk to our our customer, our client, our reader, both online and offline, right? So that became gigantic in for us. So first the publishing deal. Second was that we created a whole revenue stream. We of course were B2C because we were speaking to the couples who were planning their wedding. However, we had an entire section on Rustic Wedding Cheek that was vendor focused and they could advertise with us and spend money to be on our vendor directory. But we also provided insights and wedding trends
Alyssa Allen (06:55.807)
But we
Maggie Lord (06:59.248)
And what we were seeing in the wedding space from a B2B perspective. So that was a huge milestone when we went, we added on the B2B side of things. we licensed our name to product about six or seven years into business, which was great for us because it allowed us to then have you know, wedding decor and favors and stationary that you know, allowed us to communicate and talk with the reader in a completely different way. And and it was a really
interesting, fun creative process for us. so that was a huge milestone. And then we got some inbound interest from a couple of large media companies about would an acquisition be something we would consider. And that to me was the pinnacle right of of when you're building a business is to be able to sell. And so when we started to get that inbound interest is when I really started to think about it. And of course, both professionally and personally I think
getting over the finish line and having Davids acquire rustic wedding chic was by far our biggest accomplishment.
Alyssa Allen (07:59.432)
Yeah. I I I can I can imagine. I can imagine. And so, it sounds like you you were able to establish a lot of different revenue streams within your blog and I think especially and now of course two thousand eight versus, you know, twenty twenty six starting a blog and someone managing a blog, a lot of the revenue streams say the same, but if you were to give someone a advice who's currently managing their blog right now, how could they differentiate themselves in the marketplace where you have all this AI content and AI slop out there?
and and still be able to g build those strategic partnerships to be able to scale their online online.
Maggie Lord (08:34.456)
I think for us it really was about the our authenticity, right? I was very much the face of
rustic wedding chic, but it wasn't fully just dependent on on myself, which was great. But I think working with brands, we worked with lots of major, major you know, national brands on advertising and sponsored content and social media content. you know, they trusted us that the reader felt that we could speak to them in an authentic way. So I think that's that's number one. We d we never just sold advertising as a way of just
kind of getting that that that money in the door. And so we did it in a very strategic way. And so it was an addition and and something pleasing to our reader, but it wasn't like they came to our site and they were just it was just, you know, video ads and all this the stuff like all over the place. We were very strategic in how we did it. so I think
Being authentic to you and to your audience is really important. and then I think choosing who you partner with is very, very important because you can grab, you can be a cash grab, right? And just partner with everyone under the sun that you think your reader is gonna you know, wanna see from you. And I don't think that that's the best. I think really being intentional about who you partner with makes keeps that authenticity you know, in place, which is really important and the trust between you and your reader. and then I think diversifying for sure your revenue.
because in digital media you cannot
Maggie Lord (09:58.893)
You cannot just, you depend on one source of revenue anymore. It just, you cannot just say it's all gonna be ad related or it's all gonna be social content related. You really can't. and so you have to diversify. And I think always going back and looking at what are the streams of revenue that work for you and what are the ones that you tried and didn't work, and how can you reinvent those, right? Like there's things, there's new tools and new things to pivot to every day. So are you cannot, it's not a set it and forget it mindset for sure.
Alyssa Allen (10:26.729)
Sure, sure. I I I agree. I agree. And I w I would say there's a there's a few points that you kinda hit on that I I I really agree with. I the the first thing I'd say is like you you definitely have to diversify your revenue streams if you have an online business. And most times I I see that business owners they the thing that's their main driver, they focus so much on the main driver. and and that's also a dependency itself.
So we we oftentimes think about founder dependency, but you can also be dependent on a specific client or a specific revenue source or or a specific team member. and so thinking about dependencies in all aspects or avenues in the business I I believe is truly important as well.
Maggie Lord (11:06.016)
A hundred percent, especially when you look at it through an acquisition or an exit lens. Because, you know, one of the the biggest red flags for an acquirer is when they're speaking to someone and and all of a sudden they realize there's client concentration, right? Like maybe most of their revenue is wrapped up in one or two or three contracts. That's such a red flag, right? And so diversifying in every aspect, like you said, both between founder dependency, revenue streams, team members, client contracts, right? It's so important.
Through an exiting.
Alyssa Allen (11:36.915)
Yeah. Yeah, and and I know that when it was a certain like five years in you realize, hey, my business is extremely founder dependent. What are some things that you decided to do in that moment to make it less founder dependent?
Maggie Lord (11:49.165)
Yeah, I actually had this aha moment that I was like, if I got hit by a bus, this business would not continue without me. My family would lose all of its income, you know, f from from from what I was doing. And that really kind of shook me. And so what I decided was that I needed the first thing I could do was sit down and document all of the things that I do as the founder and CEO. That if somebody else had to come in and keep the wheels moving, they could. I
I was terrible. I took two week long maternity leaves with all three of my kids. And so I yeah. And so at after two weeks it was like strap to your chest. We're going back in front of the computer. And so I wasn't even great about taking leave, which is why I started to realize I needed to put things in place if I needed to step out of the business for a short time.
Alyssa Allen (12:20.477)
No, no, no.
Maggie Lord (12:33.876)
Or a long time. And so I started to put together the systems and processes that I was in charge of and how the company needed to run everything from our brand Bible to how to handle partnerships, how to execute editorial, how we decide on what editorial we do, what is our social strategy look like. Everything that lived just in my brain, I needed to get down on paper somewhere so that somebody else could come in if they needed to.
Alyssa Allen (13:00.009)
Yeah. Yeah, having the right processes and and documentation. You have to have the right documentation and a lot of times it founders' businesses live live in their brain. And and it may work, but then you're at the end of the day, you're going to be maxed out for time. You're gonna be maxed out at capacity at a certain limit as that business continues to grow. So having the proper documentation it it's not even the hardest thing to do nowadays, you know? Voice
Maggie Lord (13:23.446)
No, there are so many tools. There's so many tools that you can do it. And I I've worked with many, many, many founders to help them do that process. And today there are so many tools that make it easy and, you know, visibility for your entire team to see it. So it's should not be a daunting task.
Alyssa Allen (13:38.922)
Yeah, yeah. And and just to kind of roll back here, you you also spoke about how important it is to to don't don't do business with everyone. Don't promote everyone on on like your online platform. Make sure you're you're even if someone's throwing money at you, pick perfect strategic partners and and that and it sounds like you really just put brand first. And brand really matters and and when I think about brand, it it really goes to who do you make associations with.
Yeah, and so if you think about a personal brand, people know your real life, okay. they know Alyssa. Alyssa's gonna be in the gym, she's an athletic person, she cares about her health, they know okay, she also's gonna, you know, take care of a business. It's like and now who who are you friends with as well. So I always like to help people associate their business with their personal their self. And so if you Yeah, and so like if you're aware about who you associate with for your your personal life, do the same thing with your business. And just because somebody's giving you a big pay a big paycheck.
Maggie Lord (14:05.134)
Mm-hmm.
Maggie Lord (14:23.922)
yeah.
Alyssa Allen (14:34.589)
Just don't take it. it has to align.
Maggie Lord (14:37.678)
Yeah, it has to align and then you have to think about longevity, right? The best partnerships in business are the ones where
People on both sides of that partnership see a great return, right, on their investment from a founder, the return on my time to in that partnership, and from the partner, the return on their investment. And I think you want, if you can have long strategic partnerships, that goes way further with your client or reader or whoever it is, than having a bunch of short little partnerships for you know, money that it just doesn't feel right.
Alyssa Allen (15:10.185)
agreed, agreed. And this goes into the next thing about how you even got acquired by David David's bridle. Because from my research, you actually did a cold outreach to them because you sat down and thought, Who are people who would potentially buy this company? And go back to that association.
Maggie Lord (15:25.76)
Yeah, so it actually had it yes, it had actually come out of a failed LOI from a large media company in San Francisco. So I had I had we'd gotten very close to an acquisition with a company and I was very excited about it. And at the end of the day, it we it did not go through for a variety of reasons. And
It was after that that I sat down and that had come from a very organic relationship. And so it's not like we had gone on the market and then had this experience. This was a very organic evolution of a relationship. And then as it it didn't go through, and that was in October, I t really took November and December to figure out did I wanna do I wanna go through with an acquisition?
If I did, what does that look like? Is this the right time? Personally, professionally, all the things. That was the winter of Decem of 2019. Obviously, none of us knew what was coming in the beginning of 2020 with with COVID and all of that. But I did so in I did sit down in December and I s I really checked in with myself and was like, Yep, I d even though that was a painful failed LOI, I do want, I do want this. And so I made a list and
I said I'm gonna start some outreach in January and February.
And I'm going to go to a handful of strategic companies that I think would be the best home for us, right? I was going to be really, again, intentional about how I did this. And I had decided that by April of 2020, I would make it publicly known that we were kind of on the market. But I was going to talk to a handful of people first. And so I had now been in the wedding industry for 12 years. I had a lot of contacts. I, you know, most of the major media companies I had always worked with and spoken with. and there was a handful of retailers as well that I had worked with for
Maggie Lord (17:12.77)
long time, but I did not know the CEO at that time of David's bridal, but I thought it would be worth having a conversation. And I emailed him and told him they were on my short list of people to talk to before this was publicly known. And we had a meeting in New York City on March 6th of 2020, right before the world shutdown.
Alyssa Allen (17:32.255)
Wow, what perfect timing. What perfect timing is that? And and also just a great time for them to acquire you. Right before the world shut down, the amount of people that were on the internet, online businesses really took off at that moment. And so it was it was also a perfect exit.
Maggie Lord (17:34.988)
Yeah.
Maggie Lord (17:45.443)
Yeah, and if you think about the wedding yeah, the wedding industry too was really impacted, right? And so it it became because rustic wedding cheek had such trust with their reader and you know, David's bridal had such a large you know, amount of brides and couples who were relying on them for their their wedding attire. It was really a nice way to be able to to inspire and talk to them through COVID, about how wedding planning needed to look and all of that sort of stuff.
Alyssa Allen (18:13.983)
Yeah. And take take me down the path. How did you establish your potential list of acquirers, like when you were thinking about David's bridal?
Maggie Lord (18:21.238)
Yeah, so I had I had not worked much with David's bridal, but the other companies on my list were companies that who had either at some point expressed interest of like, you'd be a great
company for us to acquire one day, or they were a company like my failed LOI, which was they had every other milestone in digital media covered from motherhood to retirement to all these other home and beauty, you know, health, fitness, but they didn't have the wedding industry covered. And we had that niche so locked down. and so I made this short list of either retailers who I thought would want our
readers because eventually they need to sell them a dress or sell sell them something. They were or they were a media company who didn't have the wedding industry yet.
Alyssa Allen (19:08.703)
Okay, makes sense. Makes sense. Okay, so let's let's shift gears here and talk a bit more about that exit that exit readiness process. I know on in April twenty twenty you said you're you made a decision that you were gonna, you know, go public with hey, I'm I'm going to sell this company. I'm assuming that you never really had to do that because you you were you got acquired by David's bridal, right?
Maggie Lord (19:30.777)
Correct. So yeah, I was deep into talks with Davids by that point. So we never really went officially on the market. But I will say some of the things that I felt really good about was that because I had kind of we had gone down the path a little bit before with this other company, I had really taken the time to get my financials in order and to get our due diligence lists in order and everything that I knew was going to be sort of
X-rayed or looked at in order to make sure from a legal standpoint and a financial standpoint that this company, you know, could acquire us. So I had really done both the prep work from the logistical side of that, but then also the personal side, right? I it was very you know, people would say to me, How are you ever gonna sell this business? It's like your first baby, you had it before you had babies, all these things. And I didn't feel that way as much. I felt like it was more
Of like selling a house where I had made great memories and I was very happy for the time that I had spent there, but I was very much ready to move on.
Alyssa Allen (20:31.091)
Yeah, yeah. I I love that analogy. It's like you didn't think about it as your babies, like some somebody that you know, ca ca that you had, but a a house that you purchased and you lived in, you created memories in and then you sold it, you know, when it was time to move on and
Maggie Lord (20:45.464)
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, life is very much in chapters. And I had a pre-Rustic Wedding Chic chapter. Rustic Wedding Chic dominated a lot of my life. A lot of big milestones happened. Obviously, I got married in that chapter. We had three kids in that chapter. I wrote books, then I went on morning shows and I had a lot of big career moments. But I was very much ready for the next chapter of my career.
Alyssa Allen (21:07.849)
Yes. Yeah, so so how did your team take the the the current team that you had? how did they take this this information and d did David Bradle keep your team or did they go ahead and, you know, get rid of everyone and they all everyone moved on as well?
Maggie Lord (21:21.766)
Yes, my team was built on contractors. And so I was really the only full time employee. And so all all of my contractors you know, did not need to go over with the David's Bridal team because David's bridal was such a large corporation. They had all of the resources that they needed. so it was actually v my team was okay with it because you know they nobody was fully dependent on it. I had
built a really solid group of contractors that I'd had for a long time. and some I still have n nice personal relationships with. but they they were fully, you know, it was also COVID and it was a time of a lot of uncertainty in business. And so it wasn't sort of a shock or out of the blue. It was kind of like, okay, there was a lot of pivots happening anyway. but yeah, so my team was they were able to continue on with with doing their their other things and it was great.
Alyssa Allen (22:14.215)
Yeah, and then that's cool. That's cool too. So you h mostly had contractors. You might might have had your copywriter, you know, you had you just had a few people who just did things and they got hired for for the job and they were also okay. Like that that's that's great to not have them super dependent on the on the company either. and you being the main full time employee and you know, orchestrating all of your your op operators as well, or your contractors. So that that's that's amazing. that they that they kinda took that transition well. So
Maggie Lord (22:29.219)
Correct.
Maggie Lord (22:41.388)
Mm-hmm.
Alyssa Allen (22:41.929)
Cool. I I like to think about like after that exit, how how did this kinda impact you after you sold the company?
Maggie Lord (22:50.378)
I was very happy. I did not have regret. Some some people have regret. I, you know, in my community of exit female founders through the Whisper group, we've we spike we speak to a lot of women who have regret. I would say I had zero regret. It does, it was a big part of my identity that I did not realize it was as big until I sold. And I was kind of like, who am I now? And I needed to redefine.
myself as a business person and as an entrepreneur. and I that chapter was a little harder for me to figure out what is my next thing, what do I do? How what is my next passion? Rustic Wedding Cheek was very much my passion for all that time. but I was I was thrilled for it to go live under a new home.
I didn't I was thrilled that I thought David's Bridal was the perfect place for it. It w it's it's such an iconic wedding brand. and i it was really a time of transformation at David's bridal, so I was extremely proud to be part of that at that time. but I was very much looking forward to figuring out who I was gonna be next.
Alyssa Allen (23:42.537)
Yeah.
Alyssa Allen (23:56.092)
Yeah, and and but how did your identity change?
Maggie Lord (24:00.663)
I had to figure out what my next passion was and that took a little bit, but I did know that I would start something again, which was why when I found my co-founder, Carrie Kirpin, and we both decided that the Whisper group was gonna be our next venture of helping women prepare their business for exit and what that plan looks like, I found myself feeling very fulfilled again and I said, yes, okay, I know that I am in, I am doing the thing that I was meant to do in this chapter of my life.
Alyssa Allen (24:27.251)
Yeah. And and I I I wanna dive a a bit deeper into that too when it comes to the whisper group here. W why help women, you know, prepare for exit or w through that process and and how how does it, you know, differ? I I want I wanna hear a little bit more about that.
Maggie Lord (24:43.276)
Yeah, so the Whisper group was really founded because
Both Carrie and I had our own exit separate from each other, but we had a very similar experience. That we, while we had great deal teams around us, lawyers and accountants and all of those people, we really did feel alone in the journey. Like I kept wanting to look. I was like, where's my I need a friend who's an exited female founder who understands all of the emotion and the the tactical side of things, and am I getting the best exit and the ups and downs of that process. And that is what Carrie felt as well. And so we created the whisper group to help feel.
Alyssa Allen (25:05.245)
Yeah, how you feel? Yeah.
Maggie Lord (25:15.696)
female founders as they prepare for exit, whether it's one to five years before and how they're doing that, you know, to make sure they're in their best position to exit, to actually going through an acquisition and we are their partner behind the scenes to make sure that they are getting their best exit.
Alyssa Allen (25:33.636)
great, great. So I wanna shift you here as we wrap up. we ask every founder, consultant, expert on this podcast the same questions. We call it the operator stack, because we're actually building a data set on how the top decision makers make make their decisions. So you are you ready? I'll just spit out questions. You're gonna the first thing that comes to mind, you know, you let me know you know what you think. Cool.
Maggie Lord (25:57.839)
Okay. Yep.
Alyssa Allen (26:00.575)
Okay, so what's what's a decision making framework that you constantly rely on when evaluating opportunities?
Maggie Lord (26:09.358)
I like to make decisions within twenty-four hours. We we we wait way too long and overanalyze everything. And usually you have a gut reaction when you're making a decision. You know it. It's either a yes or a no.
Alyssa Allen (26:23.359)
I love that. Twenty four hour rule. Great. what's what's the most important numbers that you pay attention to when running a business?
Maggie Lord (26:31.544)
Profitability.
Alyssa Allen (26:33.193)
Profit profitability.
Maggie Lord (26:35.106)
Yep, yep. Revenue is great. We say revenue is vanity, profitability is sanity.
Alyssa Allen (26:40.551)
Revenue is vanity, profitability is sandy. Love that. Love that. That gotta come from one of your bugs.
Maggie Lord (26:47.756)
Yeah. Yeah. No, we 'cause really what it is is if you're not profitable or you're struggling with your profitability, that's what keeps you up as a founder at night thinking about cash flow and everything else. So while you can have a great, great revenue number that's shared out with the masses, if you don't have great profitability, you're still stuck in, you know, kind of try trying to scale in growth mode.
Alyssa Allen (27:09.885)
Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so w what's the most common bottleneck that you see consistently that prevents companies from scaling effectively?
Maggie Lord (27:18.702)
resources, right? Whether that's financial or human resources. A lot of times we wait to hire and that can hold us back. And I I understand from a cash flow standpoint, but way too often we wait to hire. And when you do that, you don't get to scale as quickly as you want to. So both financial resources but also the human resources.
Alyssa Allen (27:39.165)
Yeah, and then I like scaling is a balancing act. You have to scale internally with the team and also you have to you have to scale with your customers at the same time and and like w how are you balancing those simultaneously?
Maggie Lord (27:52.205)
Yeah, I think it's constantly evaluating so that they have to be in line with each other, right? I mean, it'd be like overcapacity on a boat or something, right? You can't have so many employees without the work to support it. However, you can't have so much work and be such a lean team that you're not actually executing the work great. So it is constantly reevaluating to make sure that they are appropriately in line with each other.
Alyssa Allen (28:14.727)
Yeah, and and speaking of resources kinda leads into the next question. When when you're evaluating leadership teams and hiring, what what's one signal that tells you someone's A plus talent?
Maggie Lord (28:25.006)
I actually think people who don't respond immediately to email and text excites me because I know that they're they're doing they're either doing something like they're working or they're reading or they're focusing on something. I think all too often the immediate response kind of shows me that they're a little it's not too eager. It's just like, is your day filled? Right.
Alyssa Allen (28:41.023)
Yeah.
Alyssa Allen (28:46.527)
Yeah, it's too available.
Maggie Lord (28:51.22)
Exactly. So that's something and then I think great leaders don't need to be told what to do. They're very happy to step up and just do it. And, you know, there's a difference between a leader and someone who implements the work, right? And I want to see a leader who steps up and is not afraid to make a call, to make a decision. you know, and if it's not the right decision, you can course correct, but we can't spend all day not making a decision.
Alyssa Allen (29:15.933)
Yeah, a leader that's willing to get their hands dirty, ac and acts fast. Got it. All right, two more questions for you. So if you had to double the value of a company in twelve months, where would you focus first?
Maggie Lord (29:29.038)
I think I would focus on making sure that the product or whatever it is that how we get paid, so the product that is does it work for our client, right? So examining is this the right product and is it the right price point?
And I would not try to diversify too quickly. All too often, like when we diversify revenue, we do like, let's 10 new SKUs or 10 new offerings or something. It's too much, right? So I would say making sure that the product you have has great product fit and that the pricing is right. And then also diversifying revenue so that you're you're you're building to your revenue by like a compound sort of experience.
Alyssa Allen (29:54.611)
Yeah.
Alyssa Allen (30:10.397)
Yeah, product market fit and making sure you stabilize a singular offer before adding on additional revenue stream because it can cause fulfillment complexity. All right? Got it. Last question here. What's a mistake that you see founders or executives repeat over and over again that cost them the most?
Maggie Lord (30:21.496)
Correct. Yep.
Maggie Lord (30:33.006)
I think not asking other people, right? A lot of times as entrepreneurs, we're kind of in a silo. And so I think talking about your companies, gut checking with other people, having a great advisory board, someone else that can help you think through problems or questions or to verify that what you think is correct. So I think all too often we don't communicate enough about the decisions we're trying to make or
you know, something about our company. And so I think that the those conversations really do move your business forward.
Alyssa Allen (31:08.873)
Yeah. No, I love it. I mean, Maggie, we we've had an amazing conversation today. I I've love learning about your experience, your story, the impacts you're making. I w I'd love to leave the links below. Where can they find you, Maggie?
Maggie Lord (31:22.604)
Yep, you can go to we are the whisper group dot com and of course you can find me Maggie Lord at on LinkedIn as well.
Alyssa Allen (31:28.947)
Yes. Well thank you so much for coming on.
Maggie Lord (31:32.248)
Thank you for having me. It was great.
Alyssa Allen (31:33.458)
Alrighty.
