"You have to have a vision, values and a future that people align with."
Beth Griffith is the CEO and a Business and Branding coach of The Magnetic Entrepreneur Alliance. She helps experts in their industries to become Icons by building Magnetic Brands that create fierce brand loyalty – starting with the business owner.
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We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to Valiant CEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Beth Griffith: Hello, my name is Beth Griffith. I am the CEO of the Magnetic Entrepreneur Alliance and we are a group of Autistic and ADHD and other neurodivergent entrepreneurs who have come together to help other businesses to market themselves by using our unique strengths and passions as a team.
Who has been the most influential person(s) in your life and how did they impact you? How did that lead to where you are today?
Beth Griffith: The most influential person in my life is my brother, Ben. When we were kids, he said something about wanting to grow up to be an entrepreneur and be a self-made millionaire and that was something that stuck with me from the time that I was about five years old. I’ve had no real explanation about how it stuck with me the way that it did, but it had. That’s why I decided from the time that I was a child I would be doing this. My brother is one of the kindest, most patient people I have ever met, and his ability to play the long game and see things through that he sets his mind on is the reason why I’m here today.
2020 was a challenging year for all of us, particularly for businesses. How did the pandemic impact your business? Please list some of the problems that you faced, and how you handled them.
Beth Griffith: Since we’re an online business, we didn’t have the same obstacles the same way so many of my clients with in-person businesses had. I own a co-working space that I had shut down six weeks before lockdowns began and so I was fortunate enough to make the transition back online before everything hit. We have supported businesses that have faced the problems and struggles of the pandemic but the biggest struggle we faced as an online business has been more recently as we’ve been stepping into a more and more frugal economy, people are more conscientious of where every dollar and they’re being intentional about that. Additionally, be going inward and fewer opportunities for in-person networking made it hard to maintain my mental health and so I struggled more with the ups and downs that came with that.
The pandemic led to a myriad of cultural side effects, including one that was quite unexpected that is informally known as “The Great Resignation”. Did this widespread trend affect you in any way?
Beth Griffith: No, it didn’t because we particularly target people who have been in business long enough that they’ve already worked out all the kinks that people who are just resigning and starting their own business didn’t experience or haven’t had the time to experience yet. I think that we will see the impact of this in a few years.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 4 million Americans quit their jobs in July 2021. How do you feel about this trend? Explain.
Beth Griffith: I felt quite conflicted on this. As I go into any restaurant, any of the places where I used to be able to get customer support and service easily, it’s a lot fure and far between being stretched far more than they used to be and ‘help wanted signs’ everywhere I go. On the one hand, I’m so glad that people are understanding that they can take their career into their own hands but then I also see people who have taken their careers into their own hands but not being able to have the team that support them. I think that this is a critical time for businesses to start to look at their brands and what will make it so that somebody does want to know what only works for them then stay working for them.
According to a study by Harvard Business Review, Employees between 30 and 45 years old have had the greatest increase in resignation rates, with an average increase of more than 20% between 2020 and 2021. That can be quite an alarming rate. What advice would you share to increase employee retention?
Beth Griffith: It may seem trite coming from a Brand Strategist but when it comes to brand, the brand is the solution. You have to have a vision, values and a future that people align with you have to have. Perks that are aligned in the business are aligned with everything that you stand for and claim to stand for. You have to look at your company culture wherein you have to decide what are you going to do so that your company can compete in this changing landscape of employment.
According to a Nature Human behavior study, In 2020, 80% of US workers reported feeling that they have too many things to do and not enough time to do them – a phenomenon known as “time poverty”. What is your take on the work-life balance? Explain.
Beth Griffith: This is an indicator of people not feeling fulfilled by their work and that they’re being expected to work beyond what they feel is reasonable. This is seen a lot when people are expected to work above and beyond what was even asked of them. I recently worked for someone for a few months and it ended up being asked to only count the hours when I was actively doing a specific task but all of the prep work and all of the things associated with it weren’t counted. So, I would be working six or seven hours but I will only get paid for four and to me, that was completely unreasonable and it resulted in working twelve hours but only getting paid for eight. It looks like you’re working full time but you’re only working a full job and a half. Employers need to stop being so selfish and they need to think about their teams first and listen to the experiences that their teams are having.
A more recent survey by Joblist asked about 3,000 respondents if they’re actively thinking about leaving their job. That survey found that 73% of 2,099 respondents who answered this question on their employment plans are considering quitting. How are you preparing for the future to counter this potentially persistent problem?
Beth Griffith: In our company, we still give our team a lot of autonomy and they love to go explore and give different things and have side hustles and even work with our clients and work in areas that might be considered being a competitor. We’re not interested in limiting our people because we know that the more that we give them their freedom, the more opportunity they have to choose to be all in on our company.
Thank you for all that, our readers are grateful for your insightful comments! Now, if the Great Resignation isn’t your greatest concern, what is the #1 most pressing challenge you’re trying to solve in your business right now?
Beth Griffith: There’s been a pretty significant hit to the online marketing and coaching industries suddenly toward the end of 2021 and I feel like it’s a really big indicator of a great recession coming far more than the threats of the Great Resignation. We’re going to see a lot more challenges and an increase in the frugal economy coming over the next few years and it’s going to take a lot of pivoting, a lot of intentional sales strategy, and a lot of slowing down and making sure that your business is aligned with what your people want because they’re not going to be throwing money away at whatever anymore. Our greatest concern is recession far more than resignation.
Before we finish things off, we do have one last question. If you had 10 Million Dollars to spend in one day, what would you spend it on?
Beth Griffith: If I had 10 million dollars to spend in one day, I would spend it on ads credits for various social media platforms to use over the next 90 days.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Beth Griffith for taking the time to do this interview and share her knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Beth Griffith or her company, you can do it through her – Facebook
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