Ep#138: Are you blocking your business’ growth and success? With Lauren Goldstein

On today's episode, I have Lauren Goldstein dropping some gold nuggets and value bombs!

Lauren is the founder and CEO of the award-winning and globally recognized boutique business consulting firm, Golden Key Partnership. 

Her clients lovingly call her “The Biz Doctor” because her superpower is helping highly specialized, 7-figure service-based entrepreneurs uncover what is keeping them stuck in the “trenches” of their business.

As a trusted advisor to some of the fastest growing businesses and Fortune 500 companies like Apple, Nike, and AT&T, for more than 12 years, Lauren’s greatest asset is helping business owners successfully transition through the gap of business operator to true business owner; from chief everything officer to powerful and effective CEO and leader.

Lauren is also passionate about the mental health of entrepreneurs. It's her goal to create a space for her clients to have more fun, play, and do good in the community while helping them have a business that can sustainably grow without feeling like it is all on them - so when they decide to take that much-deserved vacation, their business runs without having to worry!

Where to find Lauren:

Website: https://www.goldenkeypartnership.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GoldenKeyPartnership/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gldnkey/

Transcript

0:02

Welcome back to another episode of the Hello CSS Dorsey podcast. I have Lauren today on the show with us. Hi Lauren. How are you doing today? Hi, I am great. Thanks so much for having me. Yay. I'm so happy that you're on. So tell everyone who you are and what you do. My name is Lauren Goldstein. I am the founder and c e o of our award-winning and globally recognized consulting firm, golden Key Partnership. My clients lovingly call me the Biz Doctor, which also happens to be the name of my podcast, and my superpower is helping seven figure service-based entrepreneurs. Uncover what is keeping them stuck in the trenches of their business so that they can have more freedom, impact success, happier teams, and breathe a much needed sigh of relief by getting out from underneath their business and successfully transitioning from business operator to business owner. So yeah, that's a little bit about me. Let's talk about the inspiration behind you starting your business. What was that like for you? Hmm. So I had a very, I feel like bumpy road to entrepreneurship. So a little actually full circle moment about. The biz doctor, but in my former career, so my background is actually in cognitive neuroscience and I worked in pediatric neurology and epilepsy research and was going to be a doctor. So that was my life plan. And I quickly learned one day when we were Treating a little baby. The team treated her and the insurance company actually came back and said, we're not going to pay for her continued treatment. And that was the moment that I knew that medicine was forever different than what I thought it was going to be, where insurance companies were dictating patient care instead of doctors, and I just didn't wanna be part of that broken system. So I I left the medical field, which was one of, honestly, the hardest things I've ever done because my identity was so wrapped up in being in the medical field and being a doctor and all of that. And so I kind of really floated around like a cork in an ocean. And I remember crying into my grits one morning and my mentor, you know, basically, you know, said, suck it up buttercup. Here's what I think you need to do. You need to be a consultant. And I looked at him like a deer in the headlights and I said, what are you talking about? A consultant? Like, I don't even know what a consultant is. Granted, this was 12 years ago. I've been doing this for 12 years. So I started my business in 2011, but this was before being a consultant was cool, or, you know, anybody really knew what a consultant was out sort outside of being in a big four. So like you know, I can't, I can't even think of a big four off the top of my head. That's how far I am removed. But like PricewaterhouseCoopers, things like that. And so I said, why on earth do you think I would be a good consultant? He said, it's'cause of the way that you solve problems. He said, the way that you diagnose tiny humans, It's not that different from the way that you can diagnose businesses and business owners really benefit from having an unbiased third party come and look at not only what's working in their business, but also what's not and what's keeping the body of the business from being as healthy as it could. And I said, well, Jean? I don't, I don't know, but I'll give it a try. And luckily, you know, I come from entrepreneur stock, so I gave it a good called shot and I failed forward and on my face for, gosh, five plus years before I feel like I really got in my groove. And here we are today, 12 years later. Can you remember like a time, and you kind of touched on it a little bit a little bit beforehand, but can you talk about a time where you had like that hello moment in your business where you're like, yes, this is exactly what I'm supposed to be doing. Hmm. What a juicy question. I think, I think there's a couple, I think there's two. One is when I really thought the opposite, where I wanted to burn my business down and was like, what on earth am I doing? But that one actually led to the moment where I was like, this is actually what I'm supposed to be doing. So if it's okay with you, I'll share both of those. Go ahead. Okay. So the first one, it was 2018. We had really hit our stride. We were having record breaking months. Lots of clients, like we were really busy and having all the outward success, but I was miserable. Things were falling through the cracks. I was hardly sleeping. I was stressed out. I felt like I was letting my clients down. I was letting my team down. I was letting myself down. And I really came this close to just saying, screw it. And. Really burning it to the ground.'cause I was so burned out and probably the smartest thing I've ever done in that moment, not ever done. But the smartest thing I could have done in that moment was what I did, which is I closed my laptop, I unplugged my phone, you know, I turned it off. I turned off my computer, I turned off every electrical piece, device or whatever I had connecting to the outside world. And I just basically went and took a hot shower, went to bed. And didn't talk to another human being for that entire following Saturday. And this is actually one, one of my tips, which I'll probably share later, but. I woke up on Sunday and it was like I was a whole new business owner and I didn't realize how much my battery being not even on empty, like basically the battery had left the building was impacting my business and creating resentment where there really wasn't resentment. And so I woke up on Sunday and I. Resolved myself to do things differently, and so I took a really hard look at my business and what was working and what wasn't. You know, kind of what I do for my clients. What's the whole adage about the cobblers kids have no shoes? It was, it was kind of the same for me. I hadn't actually taken my own diagnostics to my business. So I did, and around the same time actually I had discovered the tool, the assessment tool we use now, which is called Wealth Dynamics, and it's really this wonderful tool for entrepreneurs and business owners that shows you your. It's a bit of a misnomer'cause it's not necessarily for like wealth management or financials, but it's actually about how are you made in your D N A and what is the kind of business that's gonna be the most in tune and in flow. I know that's a buzzword, but in flow for you. And so I realized through this Through this profile. And also at the same time I had done a human design course. And it was so funny because she, you know, did some like, Readings with everybody about like, Hey, this is, this is your natural talent. These are the kind of things that you should be doing, being doing anything from like marketing to sales. And she got to me and she goes, you are a natural problem solver. So anything you do, make sure it's. Around solving problems. And she said, you know, I recommend you be a consultant or anything like that. And one of my friends who happened to be in the class with me goes, that's her business. And so those two things, you know, going from wanting to burn it down to then actually just a few weeks later realizing that actually I am in the perfect business for my personal strengths. Was, it was almost like this huge weight had been lifted, and that was actually the moment. It was like, you know, a switch had flipped on and I said, okay, it's time to get rid of all this superfluous service. Service offerings. Try saying that five times fast. And actually go from being a mile wide and an inch deep and offering all of these different services, which were helpful and had great impacts for my clients. But at the end of the day, were spreading us too thin and not have helping us have the bigger impact that I was looking for. So I, I really killed my darlings, if you will, and went from being a mile wide and an inch deep to an. A mile deep and an inch wide with our service offerings and really just focused on operations and team and operations is already a big subject, but you know, getting rid of all the other stuff that we were doing was really that hello moment where we hockey started the hockey stick up because we didn't have like all of this trying to. Please everyone or be a one, one-stop shop. We really just focused in on, on what our, my strengths and the team strengths are that we knew we could make the biggest impact with our clients. I love how you just, you didn't stop, you just shift. You just pivot. And I think that's the beautiful thing about. Having your own business and being a business owner or c e o, you know, you can change things and try things. Whereas though, when you're working in a nine to five, you kind of like do that one set job unless you decide to apply for something else and do something else and train on something else. You know? I, I just love it and I love how, you know, you took that breather. And then you refocus and re-pivot. And I think that's so, so important. And we're gonna talk about that in a little bit about burnout next, but I, I honestly love that and it's so inspiring, Lauren. It really is. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. Yes. So let's talk about are you blocking your business growth and success? Can you touch a little bit more on that? Yeah. So a lot of times when my clients come to me, it's because they're on the verge of burnout or their teams on the verge of burnout, or they can't figure out how to get out of the weeds of the day-to-day of their business to have that true entrepreneurial freedom. Or they just feel like, you know, they're osci leaning between good and and great, but can't quite stay in the great to extraordinary two millimeters. And so oftentimes when I start working with an entrepreneur, you know, the first thing that we do is a diagnostic. We either have a team diagnostic or we have a full business diagnostic, but. What I see time and time again is the three pounds in between your ears is one of the biggest hurdles to having a business that is successful, that's scalable and, and you know, having more fun and time freedom in your business. And so when you know, I say, are you stopping your success and. Preventing your business from growing. It's a lot about, there's a huge mindset shift that happens when you go from being a solopreneur to a business owner, leader, whatever you wanna call yourself.'cause there's actually three types of business owners. There's a owner, a business operator, and a business leader, which could be a whole different podcast episode, but and actually I talk about that on my podcast, so that's one of the episodes. But when you. Look at your business and where you wanna go. A lot of times what happens when you start your business is you start your business because you've had this problem to solve and you know you can solve it. And so you just get to work and then all of a sudden you find yourself being this chief Everything officer. And then you know that you need help, but you don't know how to actually get help because nobody's taught you how to hire and build a team. And so a lot of times the things that I see stopping. Someone from having a high performing team and a scalable business is they don't understand the difference between a player and a worker bee, and they also don't understand how to build a team that's best for them. So a lot of times they're. Building a team that looks a lot like them because that's familiar versus what you actually need is a team. And this is where the wealth dynamics assessment that we use comes into play. You have to build a team around yourself that actually harnesses your weaknesses, for lack of a better word in a way because the people that you're hiring, those weaknesses are their strengths. So it's almost like. Everybody's operating well, it's not almost like it is where everyone's operating in their zone of genius, in their expertise. And when you understand the difference between a player and a worker beat, which I'll touch on here then that's when you can really set yourself up for success and avoid the burnout. So, A lot of times business owners make the mistake of their first hire being a worker bee because they quote unquote just need stuff off their plate. And what happens is when you don't understand the difference between a player and a worker bee, which is essentially, I mean, this could be a whole nother podcast episode as well, but essentially the difference is players come with a plan and worker bees come with a list. So when you hire a worker bee, You're all of a sudden now doing two people's jobs. You're doing your job, but then you're also trying to think of things that they can do to take off your plate, which I don't know about you, but that sounds terrible. And I don't ever recommend that to my clients unless they have a player that's managing that worker bee.'cause a player will come with a plan. So you say, this is our goal, this is what I wanna have accomplished. And a player will say, okay, this is the way that I think we should get there. All I need is some input from you on these, these few things. And they will run with the ball. And so if you have a player managing a worker bee, that's fine. But if you are a leader of the business and managing many worker bees, then you are going to be wearing very many hats still and feel like every day you say the same thing, which is why does so much still fall on my plate when I have a team? Like, why can't they just do their job and, and think of things to do, but in reality, they're just not cut out that way. So my question is, at what point in a person's stage of business would you recommend they start looking for, or I guess the word is outsourced or hire, I'll say looking for those key players to play those roles. So I would say from day one actually is the day that they should that they should, like really, honestly, their first hire, they should think about it this way because if you hire a worker bee, then it's just not, it's not gonna be easy or simple. Versus if you fi, if you hire a player, which you don't have to hire a full-time person, that's another misnomer. When you're hiring, you don't always have to hire a full-time person. In fact, very rarely do I think that full-time people, especially if you have a small business, are necessary. Sometimes they are absolutely, there are certain roles that they're necessary, but a player part-time will get more accomplished than a full-time worker bee in almost every single situation. So if you start. With that initial player, you will have much more momentum, much more success than if you started with like two worker bees. And so I would say your first hire should actually be that player. I. With that. And this is one of the tools that we've actually created over the past 12 years. It's called a scorecard. It helps you proactively hire that person.'cause the other mistake that I see a lot when hiring is trying to hire a unicorn or a jack of all trades, that also won't get you very far. What you need is to figure out of the places where you are not. Like really equipped or where your challenge areas are, which one of those are gonna move your business forward fastest and then hire specifically for that, like hire that weakness in somebody else's strength. Does that, does that make sense? Makes it a lot of sense. Yes, it does. Any last minute advice you have for our listeners out there? Any other advice? I mean, that's a big question. So in terms of getting started, I think what my best advice,'cause you know, mostly I work with established businesses, but I do have some clients that are, you know, just getting started. And we do this wonderful session called a C E O strategy session where we really look at your wealth dynamics profile and what your fastest way to build the business that you envision and, and all the things that I've already shared. So in and, and taking that first step. So I would say, obviously without knowing these people one-on-one, the best first step is to recognize that you don't have to have it all figured out, like this is a mountain, or it might feel like a mountain, but it doesn't need to be a mountain to climb. You just need to know that first step. And a lot of times what I see. You know, I saw it in myself in those early years, and I, I do see it in early stage entrepreneurs, is this, this, especially with the way that social media is today about comparing our behind the scenes to everyone else's highlight reel. It doesn't have to be perfect. And so if you're getting ready to get ready to get ready to get ready, you're like, oh, it's still not ready. Or what I used to do, which is his secret launch, where I'd, I'd get something like done and then I wouldn't tell anybody about it. I'd be like, oh, it didn't work. Don't do that. You just have to take a step and do what I call launching and learning, which to kind of bring it full circle back to the bid stock and neuroscience, we have to recognize that our brain, again, that three pounds in between our ears. Number one objective is to keep us alive. Which means that sometimes it does stupid things like think that if you put this reel out there or this course or this business, that you are in fact going to die. Well, I'm here to tell you, you won't die. It might be uncomfortable. You might wet through a lot of different shirts and feel like it's just not working, but. It will. You just have to stick with it and like I said, do a launch and learn. So put it out there, give it a good shot, and then see where it goes. Like really take the time to give it time to, I don't know if you think of like a seed that's germinating into a treat, like for the longest time, actually, this is a great analogy that I just thought of. So I propagated a lemon tree. And I remember for weeks, literally weeks, I was like, it's not working. It's absolutely not working. Nothing is happening. And then one day, It just sprouted. And then the next day it was twice as tall. And I think that's a really good analogy for starting a business is for so long you're like, this is not working. Nobody's listening. I'm getting a client here or there, like what am I doing? But in reality, you just gotta keep watering talking, getting yourself out there, continuing to build momentum and you'll get there. So if you are having trouble getting started, just ask yourself what is. The next step. What is one thing I could do today that will move us forward? That would be my best advice. Don't try to eat the elephant all in one bite. You know what they say? Eat it one bite at a time. Where can everyone find you? So the best place to find me is well, you can go to my website, golden key partnership.com. That's where you'll find the C e O strategy session and some other great resources if you're. If you do own a business, otherwise I am on Instagram at it's Lauren Goldstein or on LinkedIn. I will fully confess that I am what they call an elder millennial. So I am not that great with social media, but I will respond. It just might not be instantaneously. Then of course, since I'm already in your ears, I would love for you to pop over to the Biz Doctor podcast. That's actually probably the best way to get into my ecosystem and hear me drop some golden nuggets as my team calls them every week or every other week on the podcast. Awesome, and we'll definitely link those up in the show notes. Well, Lauren, this has been really awesome. I'm so happy you came on the show today. Me too. Thank you so much for having me. This was such a pleasure, and as you can tell, I can probably talk about this for hours. So thanks for, for giving me a little bit of your time and I hope your listeners get some value out of it.