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As a culture, we've come to believe that when building a business bigger is always better. More revenue, more employees, more followers, more square feet, more locations. Those are the metrics that impress people, but can this relentless pursuit of more backfire?
Today I want to talk about why staying small is the next big thing for business, why I think it's time to rethink growth as the status quo, how social media has changed the way we think about success and the three questions you should ask yourself before working towards any goal.
Let's be honest: building a company from nothing is incredibly hard. It has been for me. I started my entrepreneurial journey at age 8. Yep, you read that right....8! Since then, I've started, run and sold multiple businesses with no partners and no funding. All my life I've had to build something from nothing, and that's what I've gotten really great at - tenacious, creative and extremely smart strategy coupled with hard work. Welcome to The Do What Is Necessary podcast—I’m your host, Andrew Moon.
Listen in as I share all the mistakes I’ve made and, more importantly, what I’ve learned from them, with no fluff, and no rose-colored glasses. The Do What Is Necessary Podcast is a show where we cut through the toxic hustle and grind mindset and dig into what it actually takes to start and grow a “calm business”. Calm is family first. Calm is more independence. Calm is sustainable practices for the long term. Calm is joyful. Running a calm company is a choice.
I’ll be giving unfiltered advice every week, 10 minutes per episode each. I want you to walk away from this podcast with the mindset and tools you need to be successful.
This podcast is for entrepreneurs, side hustlers, and busy professionals with a short attention span (like me)—you’ll get quick-hitting, actionable information in every single episode. If you give me your time, I promise it won't be wasted. Now let's get to work!
As a culture, we've come to believe
that when building a business.
Bigger is always better.
More revenue, more employees,
more followers, more square
feet, more locations.
Those are the metrics that impress people.
But can this relentless
pursuit of more backfire on us?
Well today I want to talk about
why staying small, I think is
the next big thing for business.
Why I think it's time to rethink
growth as the status quo.
How social media has changed
the way we think about success.
And I want to leave you
with three questions.
You should ask yourself.
Before working towards any goal.
The first one I want to tackle is
this idea that more is always better.
And growth by itself.
Isn't always good.
And that's the stock template.
That's the stock path that every
company, every entrepreneur.
Thinks they need to go down that
they need to just continually
grow and grow and grow.
And for me at this stage in
my life with this business.
I've been guilty of that in the past,
that, that growth at all costs mindset.
But now, you know, with the new
company that I'm running now,
I don't want an exit strategy.
I don't want an IPO.
Quite frankly, I don't even
want to hire in manage people.
Uh, for me, I just want as little
responsibility as possible.
With profit.
That to me is the definition.
Of entrepreneurship now.
That to me is I'm doing my business.
Well, if I have freedom
from responsibility and
stress and constant work.
Now, I'm not saying
that I don't work hard.
I still work very hard.
But I don't want to grow and scale a
company and I don't have the goals.
That I had, maybe when
I was in my twenties.
Uh, for me, it, I don't
want to manage people.
I want to keep things super simple
and that to me now, Is what it's all
about for me is leading a calm life.
And I think that that's a question that
a lot of people aren't really asking.
And they aren't really being intentional.
And really questioning
what is enough for you?
And I can't answer that for you.
I can answer it for myself now, but
it took me a while to get there.
That I was constantly chasing goals
for the sake of chasing goals.
And if you're doing that because
we think, well, well that
makes me a legitimate business.
If I open an office or if I have employees
or if I make like X amount of money.
That then we can have
a legitimate business.
Then we were able to call
ourselves an entrepreneur.
But aren't you running
your business for yourself?
Or are you running your business for
the way it looks to other people?
I've done that I've run my business
because of how it looks for other people.
And I think that there's three
questions that it really comes down
to that I started asking myself
to help me in that transformation
and maybe these three questions.
Can help you in your transformation.
The first one is when am I
actually going to be happy?
And where do I find
that balance in my life?
That alignment.
What is enough?
How do I know when I've got there
and what will change if I do.
And if I didn't have a really
good answer to the last one.
Then there's really no point if
we don't know when we've reached
success and what life will look like.
Then we're probably
barking up the wrong tree.
We're probably going down the wrong path.
We're probably climbing
the wrong mountain.
Now for me, I would now I would rather
just run my business for myself.
Now as consumers it's, it's easy for us.
To say that you can fall
into the trap of comparison.
We, we all compare.
But the same thing happens with creators
Same thing happens with business owners.
Same thing happens with entrepreneurs.
We look at the size and the
scale of other businesses.
We look at their output.
We look at the amount
of staff that they have.
We look at the products that we're making.
We look at the service
that they're offering.
And it can feel like that
we're not creating enough
that we're not doing enough.
We're not making enough money.
So how do we pull herself away from
that and prevent ourselves from
falling into that negative comparison?
Now in the, in the past, it used to be
that it, things were physical and direct.
We compared ourselves to our neighbors.
That we've all heard the phrase,
keeping up with the Joneses.
And it would be the people
in your neighborhood is, is
my car better than theirs.
Is my TV nicer than theirs is
my house nicer than theirs.
Now, obviously, you
know, Those comparisons.
Aren't good.
But.
Benchmarking our life
against someone else's.
Is even more complicated now.
Because now we compare ourselves, not just
to our, our neighbors next door to us.
We're comparing ourselves to the whole
internet and the internet is a big place.
And when you look at Instagram and
people taking selfies on private
jets, that they just ran it on
the runway in front of fancy cars.
We see everybody living their best lives.
And things like that.
And it's hard.
Because it can make us feel like crap.
I gave up on Instagram a few years
ago because that's, I felt like I was
boring every time I looked at Instagram.
I would feel like I wasn't good enough.
All of those people that I
saw are living exciting lives.
And I'm sitting here in my sweat
pants and in my home office working.
And we compare ourselves to
others because it's so easy.
Now, every time that our social
feeds refresh, we're seeing
what other people are doing.
But we're seeing what other
people want us to see.
And now that I'm a little bit older
and hopefully a little bit wiser.
I don't bench myself, benchmark
myself based on what others are doing.
Another thought to running your
business in, instead of that constant
acquisition and growth mode that
we've got to have more and more and
more, the business has to be bigger.
I challenge you to see if you can
increase revenue by focusing on retention.
And for me, that's what I'm all about now.
I like helping people.
I like finding options for people.
I love filling needs for people.
I like having lifetime
customers, not just.
Trying to get new customers
every single month.
And sometimes that means focusing
really hard on keeping our customers
happy, developing new products.
For the people that have
already written us a check.
And not focusing on growth.
Does it mean that you're
just kind of coasting.
That you're, you know, you're
not letting the off the throttle,
you're not going downhill.
But the goal is about making your
audience happy, making your clients happy.
And not focusing on growth doesn't
mean you're stagnant either.
I bought into that mindset.
If you're not growing, you're dying.
But I'm just the opposite now.
Now for me, it means thinking about
ways to keep my business going longterm.
In order for my business to have profit.
To me now it's all about profitability.
And a profitable business.
Doesn't go out of business.
Now, I don't know what
works for other people.
I do a lot of coaching.
I do a lot of consulting now.
Um, given my experience of, you
know, since running businesses,
since, uh, since the age of eight.
But I just know what works for me.
I know what has worked for me in the past.
What hasn't worked for me in the past.
But again, I'm all about boiling
it down to three questions now.
And there's three questions that
I, that guide everything that I do.
When am I actually going to be happy?
Where do I find balance in my life?
What is enough?
How do I know when I'm I got there?
And what will change if I do.
If you can answer those questions solidly.
Then perhaps growth.
Makes sense in whatever area growth
you're thinking about, but sometimes.
If the answers don't make sense, then it's
maybe it's okay to stay where you're at.
Maybe you've reached enough.
And maybe enough means you can
kind of ease off the throttle a
little bit and dig into the people.
The relationships.
Who you're already reaching And really get
to know them and get to learn from them.
So my question, I'm going to leave
you with today on this episode.
Are you running your
business for yourself?
Or are you running your business for
the way it looks for other people