"Entrepreneurs are both born and made."
Christi Scarrow is an organizational accountability expert. She is a certified executive and agile coach, author, speaker, and Partner at Lighthouse NINE Group where she leads the “Insights and Organizational Accountability” practice. Her work and her best-selling book, Truth Warriors, help individuals, teams, and organizations to understand how they currently make decisions in order to build systems, processes and individual action plans to deliver meaningful change. She works with HR leaders and other senior-level leaders to create and enable a culture of accountability.
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Table of Contents
Thank you for joining us today. Please introduce yourself to our readers. They want to know you, some of the background story to bring some context to your interview.
Christi Scarrow: I am a hockey mom of three and the CEO of my business and my world. I left my corporate job 10 years ago (where I led sales teams) to pursue something bigger. I ran my own company for three years before joining Lighthouse Nine as a Partner. I am passionate about developing leaders and enabling organizations to support and challenge their people. COVID gave me the opportunity to write a book. This further fueled my passion for creating deeper connections in a divided world. I want people to be heard, hear others, and be confident in their decisions. This is what drives me.
You are a successful entrepreneur, so we’d like your viewpoint, do you believe entrepreneurs are born or made? Explain.
Christi Scarrow: Entrepreneurs are both born and made. I don’t believe that everyone can or should be an entrepreneur. If you have a strong desire for structure, prefer to avoid ambiguity, or lack self-discipline, you will struggle as an entrepreneur. As a business owner, no one tells you what to do or how to do it. That is a very difficult thing for some people. I have seen people who have been transitioned out of their job say “I am going to be a consultant”, only to discover it’s a lot more difficult than they think.
At the same time, having an entrepreneurial mindset does not alone make you successful. You need to continually invest in yourself, make choices in your business and accept (and learn from) failure. Business owners need to always be strengthening their entrepreneurial muscles.
If you were asked to describe yourself as an entrepreneur in a few words, what would you say?
Christi Scarrow: As an entrepreneur, I have a strong customer-focused mindset. Everything I do is driven around the needs of my potential and actual clients. I can bring unique solutions to their unique problems. Entrepreneurs need to start with their customers in mind and craft their offering and their messaging around them. Great ideas only come to life if people are willing to pay for them.
Tell us about what your company does and how did it change over the years?
Christi Scarrow: My company’s mission is “improve organizational performance through people”. Each of our partners are CEOs of their own companies who choose to work together under this common umbrella with similar values. Many of its initial partners came from corporate HR and therefore much of our work was around culture, org design, and leadership development. I joined to help expand the ‘growth’ part of our business; focusing on strategy, sales, and insights. This has allowed us to serve many different organizational challenges.
For me personally, my business has grown from a focus on sales and analytics to a more well-rounded offering that focuses on accountability, decision making and high performing teams.
Thank you for all that. Now for the main focus of this interview. With close to 11.000 new businesses registered daily in the US, what must an entrepreneur assume when starting a business?
Christi Scarrow: Entrepreneurs must assume that they won’t get it right the first time. Businesses evolve from trying and learning. They must minimize risk as best as possible in this initial stage (Hint; don’t mortgage your home to start your business). They need to recognize the gaps in their expertise and look to outsource or develop these skills.
Did you make any wrong assumptions before starting a business that you ended up paying dearly for?
Christi Scarrow: I made many wrong assumptions, but none that were extremely costly. I assumed that if people liked me, they would do business with me. I assumed that promoting my business would be easy. I assumed that being able to ‘offer it all’ would grow my business. I invested in training that was a waste of time and money. I invested in a software to manage my contacts without a clear marketing strategy (that was probably my most costly investment). The most important thing is to learn from your wrong moves and take calculated risks.
If you could go back in time to when you first started your business, what advice would you give yourself and why? Explain
Christi Scarrow: If I could go back in time, I would tell myself to focus on what you love to do. In the early days, I would take any project to make money. Even more recently, I allowed the business to evolve itself – taking any work that landed on my desk. If I could do it again, I would focus early and focus hard. What do I love to do? Who is looking for that? How can I engage with them? I would stop myself from dabbling in too many things and I would make every choice based on a defined outcome.
What is the worst advice you received regarding running a business and what lesson would you like others to learn from your experience?
Christi Scarrow: The worst advice I received was well-intentioned. He told me to network by contacting 5 people and asking them to give me 5 names and so on. This strategy can actually work for some, but it did not work for me. I found that people were reluctant to provide it, I had to chase them and I felt way too uncomfortable. It shook my confidence. And for the times that it did work, and I had a network meeting, I wasn’t sure what to do with it. It felt like a waste of their time and mine.
What I learned is that what works for some, doesn’t work for all. Just like when the 7th person tells me “You should do a podcast”, I understand the benefit in that, but I know I can’t dedicate the time to promoting it. It’s a great strategy, but not for me. What I want entrepreneurs to learn is that they MUST make choices, that it’s okay to be uncomfortable but when something feels unauthentic, or when you can’t dedicate the time to do it, let it go.
In your opinion, how has COVID-19 changed what entrepreneurs should assume before starting a business? What hasn’t changed?
Christi Scarrow: The biggest change COVID-19 brought was the need to quickly adapt. Those who couldn’t operate their business in the virtual space really struggled. When change is thrust upon you, how quickly can you react and look for creative alternatives? The other very positive change is that the world has opened up. What we might have been able to do in person, we can now offer to a broader audience. Entrepreneurs need to take advantage of that.
What hasn’t changed is the need to consider the needs of our customers. Whether virtual or in-person, entrepreneurs can only be successful if they understand and address these pain points.
What is a common myth about entrepreneurship that aspiring entrepreneurs and would-be business owners believe in? What advice would you give them?
Christi Scarrow: A common myth is that ‘If I have a good idea, it will sell” or “If I have a big following, I can make sales”. You might have a great idea or a good message or lots of followers, but if your solution does not align with your customer needs, it won’t go anywhere. If you don’t know how to package your product/service so that the benefits are clear, you won’t be successful. y nature, entrepreneurs are ‘idea people’ and they are risk-takers. This alone will not make you successful. There are no get-rich-quick options. There are no magic bullets. Entrepreneurs need to put in the work, follow their passion, learn constantly, and listen to their customers.
What traits, qualities, and assumptions do you believe are most important to have before starting a business?
Christi Scarrow: Traits/Qualities: Perseverance, self-discipline, customer-focused.
- Assume you will fail and make bad choices – learn from it
- Assume that you don’t know all the answers and will not be the expert in everything – find those that can
- Assume that you are not for everyone – find your people and ignore the rest
How can aspiring leaders prepare themselves for the future challenges of entrepreneurship? Are there any books, websites, or even movies to learn from?
Christi Scarrow: There are so many amazing resources for leaders and entrepreneurs. Some of my favorite books include:
- The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team (Patrick Lencioni)
- Start with Why (Simon Sinek)
- Atomic Habits (James Clear)
- Dare to Lead (Brene Brown)
- Decisive (Chip and Dan Heath)
I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention my book: Truth Warriors. It offers an opportunity for leaders to consider the different ways their team members make decisions so they can create better connections. Podcasts and Ted talks are also great sources. One of my favorite Ted Talks to share is: “What I learned from 100 days of rejection” by Jia Jiang
You have shared quite a bit of your wisdom and our readers thank you for your generosity but would also love to know: If you could choose any job other than being an entrepreneur, what would it be?
Christi Scarrow: I would be a full-time author or teacher. Both give me opportunities to inspire and support growth.
Thank you so much for your time, I believe I speak for all of our readers when I say that this has been incredibly insightful. We do have one more question: If you could add anyone to Mount Rushmore, but not a politician, who would it be; why?
Christi Scarrow: (Great question-I had to put some thought into this). I think I would choose Maya Angelou. We need better representation of minorities and women. We need to celebrate those who inspire others; who lift others up, who share their voice with the world to make it a better place.
Mike Weiss, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Christi Scarrow 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 Christi Scarrow or her company, you can do it through her – Linkedin Page
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