Listen in and thrive as Lynne Roe, leadership expert and author of Leadership in Action: Inspiration for Intentional Leadership, shares her expert insights on transitioning from entrepreneur to CEO. Learn how to build a profitable business, create freedom and flexibility, and develop leadership skills that foster growth and success.
What does it take to move from being an entrepreneur to becoming the CEO of a thriving, profitable business? Lynne Roe, business consultant and leadership coach, shares her expert story of career transformation, adaptability, and intentional leadership.
Growing up in a household where financial independence was a core value, Lynne learned early on the importance of taking charge of her future. Her career journey—from biology to marketing research to leadership coaching—proves that success often requires reassessing goals and embracing new opportunities.
Lynne’s expert insights reveal that effective leadership isn’t about doing everything yourself but about empowering others to thrive. She helps business owners shift from overworked entrepreneurs to confident CEOs, ensuring their businesses support the lifestyles they truly want to live.
✨ Key Takeaways:
If you’re ready to step into your role as a leader and build a business that works for you, this episode is a must-listen! 🎧🚀
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Book: Leadership in Action: Inspiration for Intentional Leadership
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Lynne Roe
You can build two very different kinds of businesses, and you might not want that business that you'd have to be running. If, if you were jet setting around the world, you might prefer to have a smaller business. So, I always start with what's the lifestyle you want to be living and let's design your business.
You can live that lifestyle because. Honestly, you're not on this earth to run your business. You're on this earth to live your life and your business is supposed to support you living that life.
Narrator
Welcome to making change with your money, a podcast that highlights the stories and strategies of women who experienced a big life transition and overcame challenges as they redefined financial success for themselves.
Now here's your host certified financial planner, Laura Rotter.
Laura Rotter
I am so excited to have my guest today, Lynne Rowe. Lynne is the president of LSR Consultants and the author of Leadership in Action, Inspiration for Intentional Leadership, a book designed to help leaders of all types improve their leadership skills a little bit every week.
Lynn works with entrepreneurs and small business owners to develop a strong foundation to lead their business, taking business owners from entrepreneur to CEO of a successful and profitable business. So welcome Lynn to the making change with your money podcast.
Lynne Roe
Thank you so much for having me today.
Laura Rotter
Looking forward to see where this conversation takes us Lynn. And, of course, I will start how I always start, which is, um, Lynn, what was money like in your family growing up?
Lynne Roe
You know, that's an interesting question. I also, I often wonder to myself, how did my parents do all that they did? Because I know my dad had a great, a good salary.
I don't think he had a great salary. He had a good salary, but I can't believe. All the things that they were able to provide for my siblings and I, there were 4 of us and I grew up in Chappaqua. So that's Westchester County, New York outside of New York City.
So not a cheap, not a cheap place to grow up.
Laura Rotter
Probably wasn't that expensive way back then either.
Lynne Roe
Yes, that's true. And I know that we purposely bought a house that was within walking distance. Of the train station, so we only had to have 1 car. So dad didn't have to have a car to get to work. He could walk to the train station and take the train to New York. So I guess that's 1 place. They saved some money at least until there were more than 1 driver in the family. Then we needed or more than 2 drivers in the family. Then we had another car.
Laura Rotter
Yeah, that makes sense. And what were the expectations of you and your siblings? Were you expected to work? Do you have do you have a memory?
Lynne Roe
You know, I guess we were always expected to work. We always did work. So, but I don't remember my parents saying, you have to go work. It was, it was just an expectation. And I started babysitting as early as I possibly could and started saving money for, I don't know, all kinds of things that I was interested in back then and so did my siblings.
So, we, we all started working. At something as young as probably 11 or 12 years old, that's probably when I started babysitting. And then once we were old enough to have a part time job, we, we did that as well, certainly through the summers and and some sometimes a little bit during the year as well. And while we were in school.
Yeah, I do remember. In the summers, we all worked for my grandmother and. Was always a debate, would we have enough money at the end of the summer after working for grandma? Because grandma didn't pay us a lot, but she had a summer home that she really needed help caring for, but will we have enough money to make it through the school year at college?
So, you know, enough spending money for college, that was always the question would it would it be enough to support support grandma with help and not get paid as much as maybe we would in another job, but also have enough to make it through the school year. Yeah.
Laura Rotter
Thanks for sharing that. So I guess I'm coming away with two thoughts, which is certainly your money was your own.
You weren't expected to buy yourself clothing or books or necessities. On the other hand, would I be correct in assuming, Lynn, that If you needed spending money at college, you were expected to earn it?
Lynne Roe
Yes, we were. I mean, if there was an emergency, mom and dad were there as a backup. But yes, we were expected to earn enough money to have spending money.
And if we didn't earn enough money, we didn't have anything to spend. Less partying, I guess, in college.
Laura Rotter
Exactly. So that was clearly a very strong work ethic that was passed along to you and your siblings. I know you have one brother because I know one of your brothers. Do you have another sister or it's…
Lynne Roe
I have another brother and another sister.
So there's 4 of us boys and 2 girls. Yes.
Laura Rotter
And where were you or where are you in the birth order?
Lynne Roe
I'm the oldest.
Laura Rotter
Do you have any sense of perhaps both being the oldest, being a girl, how you might've been treated differently from your siblings?
Lynne Roe
I don't think so. I, I really think, you know, My dad spent a lot of time talking with us about business, about his business, about what he did.
He was in advertising and I certainly had a lot of discussions with him growing up about advertising and how business works and how people companies get to sell things and how you're able to buy things. So we had a lot of discussions about. Growing up and working when you get get to be an adult.
That's for sure. And it didn't matter.
Laura Rotter
I love that. I guess you're implying that the fact that you were. A woman didn't matter. Dad treated all of you equally.
Lynne Roe
That's interesting because my dad, his company had box seats to the Jets and the Rangers when I was a kid. And he was the head of advertising, which meant he was in charge of the box seats.
So if they didn't have a client that they were taking to the game, one of the games, I often went because I was the oldest and the younger ones had got to stay home with mom and dad, you know, mom, mom couldn't go because she had to take care of the kids. So I often went. So my dad really treated me in many ways as if I were his son.
Laura Rotter
I mean, this really resonates with me, Lynn. 1st of all, I grew up my family had seasons tickets to the jets. Which, you know, was sort of a sad thing, continues. I mean, the Jets are not the, you know, the greatest team to be rooting for, but you know, we always have hope. And I grew up on one sister, and we definitely, like, we went to the sports games with dad, we watched sports on TV with dad.
Was there an expectation that you would go to college?
Lynne Roe
Always. It was always assumed that all of us would go to college, but what's interesting is. My dad has an MBA from Harvard, so no slouch degree, and my parents and my mother went to Radcliffe for her graduate degree, and my parents never encouraged us to go to grad school.
They never discouraged it either, but they never encouraged it. And I thought that was very interesting. I mean, I still don't really know why they never discouraged us. Never said you shouldn't go. It was just, it was really not discussed.
Laura Rotter
That's interesting. And you were expected to work, to have spending money, but they set aside money and paid for your college.
Lynne Roe
They did set aside money and pay for college. My grandmother actually gave each of us one year's worth of college at a public college. When we turned 18, we got that much money for ourselves, except that it was 1 year's worth of college costs for her oldest grandchild. And I'm like, 12 or 15 years younger than that.
So, it really wasn't even enough money for 1 year of college for me. We all got the same, the same dollar amount and it was enough for her, but it wasn't enough for me or my siblings. But it was, it contributed. It certainly helped. I used that money to do international travel while I was in school. So I wanted to go abroad for a semester and that's how I used that money from my grandmother.
Laura Rotter
So nice that your grandmother was so generous. I guess you, you in turn, you and your siblings were generous in giving your time to her and her needs. And it's so nice that she gave. A chunk of money for each of you to go to college. I'm listening to you saying that by the time you went, it didn't pay for a full year.
My God. I mean, I'm advising clients now who have kids going to college and room and board at private colleges. Now there's like 80, 000. I thought I paid a lot when my kids went to college. The numbers are just how any buddy with just a normal. Income pays for school. It's it's really insane.
Lynne Roe
I'm expecting my 1st grandchild in the next week or so.
Oh, yes. I'm very excited. Congratulations. And I'm already thinking, how will they ever have enough money to send this kid to grad to college? You know, in 18 years. Because it's so incredibly expensive at this point…
Laura Rotter
It's really a broken system, but we'll talk about that some other time. So what was your major?
What did you imagine you would be doing when you graduated when I was in college?
Lynne Roe
I thought I wanted to be a biology teacher. I loved biology and that's what I studied when I was in school. And then somehow before I graduated, I realized that teachers actually don't make all that much money. And so I thought, well, I guess I'll go into business instead.
And I had no idea what business, what that meant. I didn't know what that meant. I'll just do business instead. I don't know what that means, but I'll do it. But I had for a couple of summers, I had a summer job in New York city doing marketing research. And. I was, you know, on the phones and coding responses and things like that, but I enjoyed it.
I really enjoyed it. And so that's where I started working was in marketing research
Laura Rotter
2 things come up for me when you say that 1st of all, you grew up, you know, comfortable financially and yet you were motivated. To make money, you know, I often see people who grow up comfortably and they're not thinking about how much they're going to earn as a social worker or teacher.
It doesn't really occur to them. But you, you're shaking your head. You said, absolutely. You knew you wanted to earn a certain amount of money. How? Because.
Lynne Roe
Because I love to travel. I like to do things that cost money. I travel. I ski. I play golf. I like things that that are expensive. And the only way I could continue to do those things at the time, it was mostly traveling and skiing.
And so if I was going to do those things that I really wanted to do, I needed money. So, so that was, that was my motivator.
Laura Rotter
So far, I hear echoes of my oldest son, who's now a physician. He went his first year university. He was enrolled as a musical theater student. And by the end of the first year, he was taking pre med classes.
And my husband and I were like, Why are you taking pre med? We don't, you know, you don't have to be a doctor. And he said, I mean, Lynn, exactly what you said. He said, I don't want to wait tables living in a walk up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn with 12 other friends. I want to play tennis. I want to go skiing. I want to travel.
And it was interesting that he made that decision for himself. He said, I didn't do it for you. I don't care what you want.
Lynne Roe
So you, you have to know yourself and I was looking long term to my first job. I made almost no money and when I got done paying my rent and utilities, I had. About 50 a week, not even for everything else, food, you know, toiletries and going out.
I had nothing to the point where when I met my husband, we met on a blind date and he called me and he invited me to go out for a drink and I said to myself. Oh, I need more than a drink. I need dinner. So I invited it over him over for cocktails and I had some wine in that in the refrigerator for some leftover from something and I had a little bit of cheese and crackers and we had that.
And then he said, well, would you like to go out for dinner? I was like, yes, please. Better than ramen. I really, I truly had no money for anything when I first started working, but I knew that I had the potential and I knew that the industry I was in would give me the potential to earn money.
Laura Rotter
Yes, I'm sure we all have and then be able to do what I wanted to do.
So, your son was probably smarter because he started out as a physician and they make a lot of money to
train to be physicians. And then. But I think all of us with our entry level, I still remember doing like the Christmas savings, you know, so that at the end of an entire year with my first job, I had like 1000 of savings, but I was, I'm sure you were similar.
Lynne Roe
You know, I was very disciplined and I was going to save money. And I would only shop at the grocery store that had the green stamps. Do you remember green stamps? I do. And we still, we still use the silverware that I bought with green stamps on a day. I mean, that's what I, that's my primary. Yeah, my primary silverware every day.
Laura ROtter
That's so funny. I remember my, my mother having green stamps. So you mentioned that market research was attractive to you. What do you think, you know, what attracted you to it? What about your skillset you feel was being used?
Lynne Roe
I love the fact that I had a whole lot of different clients. In different industries and so I was never always doing the same thing.
It was every client had a new challenge and something interesting that they were doing and I got to be a part of what they were doing. So. I had clients. I had IBM as a client. I had AT& T as a client. I had some very big clients and then I had some very small clients and it was just fun. You know, IBM needed needed some research done on personal computers way back when I did the research for that.
AT& T needed some research done on this idea that there's. How would you feel about a telephone that you could carry around with you and you could, everybody would have your number all the time, no matter where you are. Would anybody be interested in that? I did some research on that. And then I did research on all kinds of new things that that didn't exist at the time, new products and ideas that people were considering doing.
So I loved the fact that it was never the same thing. And one of the research projects was. What do you put in stew? Because they were developing a new stew. This company was developing a new school stew, and they wanted to know what people put in their stew so that, you know, they could, anyway, it was always something different.
There was always something new for me to to be thinking about.
Laura Rotter
And I love that. Thank you. And what was the mix between client interaction and. An actual research where you're sort of on your own doing so client interaction.
Lynne Roe
Obviously, we had to plan the work that we were doing and then I, I designed the study and.
I'd help I'd implement it. I didn't always do all. I didn't I definitely didn't do all the phone calls. We had a whole bank of callers and I didn't do I did some focus groups, but I didn't do all of them. Sometimes I had other people doing them. So I had a variety that way. And then I would. Full the reams and reams of data, you know, like piled up.
I pull all of that together into a report, which I then presented to the client.
Laura Rotter
So it sounds like it was a mix of both soft skills, presentation, interactions, as well as the hard skills of putting the, I mean, as a coach, maybe I should know the answer, but do you tend to lead towards lean towards one versus the other?
Lynne Roe
That's an interesting question. There are some people who are Who just purely coach and then there are people who are really consultants and not coaches, even though they sometimes call themselves coaches. I actually do a mix. I coach when that's what I think my client needs, and I consult when I think that's what my client needs and I don't always tell them what I'm doing, but I have to shift my own brain because it's a different set of skills.
Coaching and consulting is a two different sets of skills. So when I move myself, I think, okay, this client really needs me to be a coach right now. I move myself into that coaching mode and and start thinking that way as opposed to consulting mode.
Laura Rotter
Interesting. So this is leading me to ask Lynn. How do you know?
Which mode, but is there a way you could describe to a lay person like me what you're looking for?
Lynne Roe
Yeah, it depends on what the question is. Really, that's that's in their mind, you know, what are they trying to resolve? And if it's something I think they need to be connected to, they need to develop the idea themselves.
Then I coach to help them develop it themselves so that. When they, when you develop it yourself, you've got a much stronger buy in, but sometimes they just need someone to say, this is how you do it. You know, or, or not maybe that strongly, but maybe there are these 4 ways that you could do this. And then we talk about the different and that's more of a consulting role.
Laura Rotter
So. I guess clearly I, I can see how you were drawn to consulting, but what was the path? How did you end up leaving the market research path and starting your work as a consultant?
Lynne Roe
So I, I worked for some big companies in marketing research, and then I also worked for small market research companies. And I had my own consulting business when my kids were young, and that gave me the flexibility to be home with the kids most of the time.
And then as the kids started to grow, I knew I was looking for something different. The industry was changing. And so I actually just said, I recognized that my school district needed an after school enrichment program. And so a friend and I started the after school enrichment program in our school district.
And that was a huge leadership. because we had to get the school board, the superintendent of schools, the principals of three different schools, all the parents, all the teachers, the custodial staff, we had to get everybody on board with it. And I loved that. That was really exciting. That, that leadership role, I had done lots of leadership roles in, in the other things that I did in the not for profits that I did in the for profit companies that I was in, but this was a really different kind of experience.
And. I realized I really enjoyed doing that. And so I thought, you know, maybe I'll maybe I'll become a coach. And so I went to school to become a leadership coach and that that's a full year's worth of study. And then I came out and thought, I'll be a coach in corporate because I've done that. And I know it really wasn't for me.
I could see how the work that I was doing was making a difference with the teams that that I was working with. They could communicate better. Things were happening more smoothly, but I also really had enjoyed growing businesses. And I couldn't see that the work I was doing with these corporate teams was having any effect on the business because the businesses were so big.
You know, it's a drop in the bucket. If you're, if you're working with IBM and one small team in IBM, who knows whether or not that made any difference to the, to the business itself. So at the same time, I worked with a couple of small business owners and I loved it. I just loved. working with them to become a better leader of their organization so that their business could grow and I could see that the business was growing.
So it was one of the things I had liked about the other companies I was in where I was growing the businesses and so I thought that's where I need to be.
Laura Rotter
So I'm going to repeat myself and ask the question when you said you seem so turned on by. Working in the school system, providing the enrichment program.
Again, you had a deep sense of why it was impacting your kids and among others. What about you? Made that something attractive and attractive role.
Lynne Roe
Again, I think part of it was the variety, you know, I was pulling together programming for kids. We had 20 courses and 200 kids running each semester. So it was all of the variety of the courses that we were running.
And that's what I love about what I'm doing now, because I work with so many different kinds of clients. I mean, you're hearing a theme, right? Yeah. Yeah. When I was doing market research, when I, when I was working with the kids and now I have a variety of different kinds of companies that I work with and they all have different challenges and I love.
The variety, I love finding new challenges, and I think one of my greatest strengths now is that I can take a really good idea from one company and another really good idea from another company and kind of put those together in a way that they work really well for a third company. So, it's, it's, it's the variety, but the variety is.
Helping me create new ideas. And new solutions.
Laura Rotter
Oh, I'm also hearing that you like to solve problems and I guess as someone who also deals with a variety of different kinds of people can also be difficult. And you're dealing with people probably similar to me when I talk to people about money, there's a tremendous amount of anxiety.
And so you're holding other people's anxiety. Does that resonate with you at all? Dealing with people's emotions during? Yeah,
Lynne Roe
I definitely deal with their emotions as they're trying to grow their business, as they're struggling, as they, you know, they call up and they say, I don't have enough money to make payroll this week or whatever, you know, the challenges are that are going on in the business.
Or they'll call with, I just got an opportunity to buy another business. What should I do? You know, I love working with them on that, but I, I do it from the perspective of calming them down and okay, let's look at what's the strategy to solve the problem or the strategy for okay, if you buy the business.
Let's let's make sure that it makes sense long term for you is actually going to take you where you want to go. And how are we going to get there? So, well, people come to me with. Maybe a lot of emotion going on, they almost always leave feeling much more calm and under control with where they want to be and how to get there.
Laura Rotter
First of all, I have to say you have a very stable, um, in presence. So I can see that that's part of it. And it sounds like. If I'm correct, you're helping people really articulate where they want to go because we live in a culture where bigger is always better. And for example, when you're talking about purchasing another business, bigger may not be better.
So it sounds like there's definitely a bit of psychology to help the people you work with understand themselves. And what it is that they truly want.
Lynne Roe
Yes, that's interesting. You brought that up. I, I always start with my clients when I start working with them over a 1 year period. Let's say, we always start with creating a strategic plan.
And in my mind, the 1st step in creating a strategic plan. Is identifying what's the lifestyle that you want to be living and then we build the business to help you live that lifestyle. So if your lifestyle is you want to be jet setting around the world on your own jet, you've got to build a very different business.
Then, you know, I'm pretty content with where I am. I just need some more time to spend with family. And I want to take a nice two week vacation every year that you can build two very different kinds of businesses and you might not want that business that you'd have to be running. If, if you were jet setting around the world, you might prefer to have a smaller business.
So, I always start with what's the lifestyle you want to be living and let's design your business so you can live that lifestyle because. Honestly, you're not on this earth to run your business. You're on this earth to live your life and your business is supposed to support you living that life.
Laura Rotter
So true.
And deceptive sounds deceptively simple, right? I mean, I'm assuming you run into people that aren't perhaps at the beginning, they imagine they want something that after exploring with you, They don't truly want. Have you found that?
Lynne Roe
Absolutely. The gentleman who wanted to be jet setting around in his own jet.
After we had a conversation about what his business would have to look like, and he had a business, he could have built that big if he wanted to. But after we talked about that, he said, you know, it probably would be okay. If I just had 1 of those jet coops. Where, where I could, it's not my jet, I don't have to own the jet, but I can still go and do what I want to do.
And so the design for his business became smaller because he didn't. He realized that that was something he wanted, but maybe he didn't want it enough to to build the business. He'd have to have to get there.
Laura Rotter
Yeah, it's really again. Human beings are fascinating. And I've repeated several times something someone said to me.
Recently, which is. Money is something that's measurable, right? Private jet, but whether or not you want freedom or security or adventure or variety is not measurable. So we use money as a proxy, but it's, it's a pale proxy for what we truly want. And so it sounds like Lynn, part of your role is to help people actually understand what it is they want their business to do for them.
Lynne Roe
One of my coaches coach who coaches me says money is not forgetting things money is for changing things and I really love that philosophy because whether it's you want to change something in your own life or change something in the world or change something in your business. When you think about money that way, rather than I just want to get things that doesn't really necessarily change your life.
I mean, it might, it could, depending what you get, but I love the idea of thinking, you know, what money do I need to change something? I'd like to change.
Laura Rotter
Beautiful. I love that quote. Just wrote it down. So, we've talked about variety and how you like. Variety in general in different ways. And as a business owner myself, I'm constantly getting the message to niche, niche, niche, or niche, niche, niche, depending on, you know, that.
So you don't only want to serve business owners. You want to serve business owners to live in Westchester County that have three, you know, so what's your reaction to that? How, how did you decide to. Go in another direction.
Lynne Roe
So I'll be honest. I did originally niche down and honestly, I niche down too small.
There just wasn't enough out there enough people there were, but it was going to cost me too much to find them. Put it that way. And I also think thought, well, I don't just want to work with that kind of person or company. And so I actually, I went from the niche, the really tight niche to a much broader niche.
And I think that's, I think that's kind of a personal preference. You know, from my perspective, I like the variety, but I don't I don't work with every business that's out there. You know, I, I'm not I am definitely not an expert in restaurants. I have someone I know that is an expert in working with restaurants and if any restaurants come to me, I recommend that they talk to him.
So, it's, I am niched down in that I work with service based businesses. I really don't work with retail and products. And yeah, I do a little bit with manufacturing, but not a lot. So, in some ways, I'm niched down a bit, but not. Not too tight. And that's my own personal preference. And, and, and to be honest, I know that that makes my marketing a little more difficult.
I know it does. So when I'm working with, with clients, we'll talk about, okay, should we niche down more for me being niched down too small is not good because it doesn't feed the variety that I need. But for someone else, if they're, if a niche works for them, then it makes marketing much easier.
Laura Rotter
Yes. I definitely agree.
I'm curious, you've identified that you enjoy working with service based businesses within that, do you have. A sense of the kind of people you enjoy working with, perhaps a psychographic, if not a demographic?
Lynne Roe
Yes. It's really people who are, the people I really enjoy working with are very down to earth.
They are consciously thinking about how do I give back to my community, my world. It's definitely people like that. Those that I enjoy working with the most. And they give back in many different ways. You know, some of them are, they volunteer for different organizations in town. Some of them are, they teach on the side.
Yeah, it's a variety, but yes, it's, it's always that kind of heart centered. I'm here, not just for myself, but also to give to others. In some either of my time or my money,
Laura Rotter
So I'm hearing when I'm going to assume that you grew up in a family culture of of giving back. So, how are you doing that in your own life?
And perhaps. Maybe you might, like, do you see what you're doing is mission driven or how do you see what you're doing? It's mission driven.
Lynne Roe
It's definitely mission driven, so my mission is to be a multiplier for good in the world. And I do that by helping people become better leaders, because I think a leader is the is the person who can make a difference.
Right? So, the more people I can help become leaders, the better. And so I do that in my work. Right, obviously by by helping all of these business owners become great leaders of their businesses so that they can give back and it becomes a ripple effect. But I also volunteer my time to work with not for profits.
And help their leadership boards do the work that they need to do to, to promote their own business, their own organizations and do the work that they do. And that I really enjoy that. I've, I've done something with a whole lot of different not for profits. And I'm always on the board of some organization somewhere.
Yeah, I was today I was talking to someone and he said, oh, I see you're going to be the treasurer and I said, yep. Yeah. I can't think of a single organization I've ever joined that I didn't, at some point, end up on the board somehow.
Laura Rotter
Is there a way, I don't know if you can generalize, do you see, what are the differences you see in terms of leadership and non profits versus for profits in terms of perhaps, you know, Your work,
Lynne Roe
I see a couple of things, the nonprofits that do well, they recognize that they actually are a business.
They're just a business that isn't making money. They give away the money that they get in some way, shape or form, but there's still a business and they recognize that. So that's that's kind of 1 thing that I see. The other thing I see is. That many not for profits rely on volunteers, and it's difficult to, it's much more difficult to manage volunteers than it is to manage people who get paid for the work that they do, because there's often some other priority that comes above their volunteer work.
And so, The way the way that you have to keep them is you have to motivate them with the mission and the vision for the organization that you're doing that you're working with.
Laura Rotter
So, that's part of the challenge, if you will, of the, of the organization to keep the mission front and center and have it resonate with everyone.
That volunteers there.
Lynne Roe
Yeah, and get those volunteers to really feel the difference that they're making by being a volunteer.
Laura Rotter
And, of course, as you're saying that, I'm just stepping back and thinking, I know we've all seen it of the commercials. Obviously, that's a for profit. But like, you know. Radiation technologists to meet the patients that were served and were to keep mission front and center is not easy for any organization, nonprofit or for profit.
Lynne Roe
It is, it's an important thing then. And many for profit organizations don't spend the time to create a mission for themselves. And I think it's, it's a real detriment to the business. Because they don't, it's a lot harder to build the culture that they need within the company to accomplish the things that they want to accomplish if they don't have a mission.
And if they don't have something bigger than themselves to focus on.
Laura Rotter
Oh, how do you incorporate that into the consulting work that you're doing?
Lynne Roe
It's usually. Mission vision and values for the business, if they don't already have it, that's something we work on together.
Some businesses already have them and they've done a great job with them.
And so I don't work on those with them, but and sometimes we can take what they already have and make it stronger. But I think it's, it's a critical piece of what is the business about.
Laura Rotter
Thank you. So, I'm wondering, Lynn, how do you, you mentioned a year, but. Generally, how do you work with your clients over what period of time?
What kind of commitment do you expect?
Lynne Roe
So generally I do work with people over a year and depending on the business, we'll usually start with a strategic planning session, which can take, you know, several hours, four hours, something like that to create a strategic plan. Sometimes more depending on the business.
And how complicated it is. Sometimes it can take a couple days. It really does depend on the business. And then I generally work with the business owner and coach that business owner to implement whatever the plan is that we've created throughout throughout the year. Sometimes the business owner will bring me in to work with their team as well, especially if there's a communications challenge that the team is having, or they want to work on developing that mission with the business.
We'll do that with the team. It depends a lot on what the business needs. Sometimes we'll spend time on the mission, the vision and the values. It really depends on what the client needs. I can tell you that most of my clients stick with me for multiple years before they get to the point that they feel really solid in their business and they've got their business running smoothly.
Laura Rotter
Thank you.
So as we're getting towards the end of our conversation, Lynn, I always like to ask. And I might tweak it for you. I usually ask, how is your definition of success shifted? I'm curious. Also, how do you feel like your leadership has shifted and maybe they're 1 in the same? I don't know.
Lynne Roe
I think leadership takes a lot of time and experience.
That you can learn some principles, and I think that's important to learn them, but it takes time and experience and and I'm sure that in the beginning, I don't really remember that far back too well. But in the beginning, I probably thought, oh, I'll be the leader and I'll tell them all what to do. I probably thought that.
I don't know, but but I realized that. It's a lot more about listening and understanding the other people that you're leading than it is about speaking and telling them what to do. So listening and motivating them. I really see the job of a leader as being the person who makes it, does everything they can to make sure the other person can do their job to the best of their ability.
So your job as a leader is to support person underneath you to do their job to the best of their ability.
Laura Rotter
Yeah, and so few leaders really recognize that that's their role, right? So many leaders think it is. You know, be up there and tell people what to do. I mean, having come from an industry, you know, the institutional investment side of the business where you mostly had people who were gifted in investing on their own, so they raised more and more money.
So they needed to hire other professionals and had no idea how to lead those professionals. It's a different skill set and didn't seem particularly interested in learning that skill set. And so it is, you know, I'm always encouraged. And I think I was going to say, I think our culture, perhaps the people I know is much more geared towards recognizing that.
We lead by listening. We lead by example. We lead not by being the loudest or the, you know, frankly, often nastiest in the room. And and so then I guess I'll repeat the 1st question, which is, and, you know. You know, if you watch yourself, you're about to be a grandmother, clearly you're at a different age.
How has your definition of success shifted?
Lynne Roe
It's less about money and more about the things I've wanted to do that I haven't yet had the opportunity to do. I think that that's that's where success comes in for me is having that ability to do new things or or even things that you know, my book was a great example.
I wanted to write a book for a long time and I finally wrote the book and and feel very good about the fact that I, that I wrote a book. Now I'm thinking about the next.
Laura Rotter
And, um, and I was going to ask if there's any ski mountains you still want.
Lynne Roe
There are still quite a few ski mountains I have not yet skied and I would like to do those as well.
Laura Rotter
Yes. So we're coming to a close. Is there anything else you want to make sure you share with our listeners?
Lynne Roe
I think it's important if you're a business owner out there listening for you to think about the fact that as if you want to grow, you cannot.
Continue to be the entrepreneur owner of the business. You really need to shift your thinking so that you become the CEO of the business, and that's a matter of of changing the questions you ask yourself. So, for example, if if the question is, how do I do this? You maybe need to change your question and ask, who can I get to do this?
Or who can help me do this? A question like that it's it's a shift from I have to do it all to I need to build the team to do it. And that's kind of the most important shift. I think, and until you can make that shift. You can't, you only can grow so far because there's only so much of you to go, go around.
So if as a business owner, you have a business and it's a small business and you want to grow, you really have to shift your thinking from entrepreneur to how to be the CEO of the business. That you are leading.
Laura Rotter
Yes, I, as an entrepreneur, still, I agree. It's certainly true that so many of us are employees of our business, as opposed to CEOs of our business.
And it is a big shift. And I know you to be someone who, who helps many businesses make that shift, both. Both with the hard skills as well as the soft skills. Thank you so much for being my guest, Lynn.
Narrator
Thanks for listening to Making Change With Your Money. Certified financial planner, Laura Rotter, specializes in helping people just like you organize, clarify, and invest their money in order to support a life of purpose and meaning.
Go to www. trueabundanceadvisors. com forward slash workbook For a free resource to help you on your journey. Disclaimer. Please remember that the information shared by this podcast does not constitute accounting, legal, tax, investment, or financial advice. It's for information purposes only. You should seek appropriate professional advice for your specific information.