Who Not How

Originally sent out: 10/04/25

T.E.A Break – 031

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In my 30s, I built an ‘okay’ business.

Okay turnover. Okay profit.

It was hard, but I had a lot of fun along the way and learned a heck of a lot.

My mantra for going from freelancer to business owner back then was…

I know how. I’ll teach you how. I’ll show you how.

My business is, and always has been bootstrapped. We’ve never borrowed money.

I didn’t want investors, I didn’t want to give up equity. I liked being truly independent.

That meant I didn’t have loads of cash to invest into people.

The only option, bring in juniors and train them up.

“That’s fine”, I thought to myself.

I know how to do all this stuff (Google Ads, Meta Ads, SEO, Content Marketing etc).

I knew how, I’d honed my craft over many years both in-house and working in agencies.

By the end of my 30s, I’d built a business turning £600k+, spinning off a 15% net profit.

Not bad, but not great.

When I looked ahead to my 40s, I knew I needed to do things differently.

I started looking for advice from those in business who were miles ahead of me.

I came across this philosophy of who not how.

I was immediately struck by the idea of how brilliant it was.

Who not how!

In the past 18 months I’ve completely re-imagined how I run my business.

I no longer think how can I do this or that…

I now think who can do this or that…

Rather than employing juniors and training them up.

Now, I employ experience and leveraging their expertise.

Over the past year or so, this mindset shift has catapulted my business forward like never before.

I’m buying in 10,000s of hours of experience and expertise with every new team member I introduce into my business.

As I write this to you this morning, I have another huge talent joining my team next Monday.

A motion designer, animator and videographer who brings with her, years of expertise and experience.

Added to that, yesterday we recruited another paid social manager with many years experience working for some incredible brands, who starts with us in a couple of months.

Loads of experience and expertise ready to be deployed for the benefit of our clients.

When you think who rather than how, you immediately start thinking bigger.

I now have the head space to think about the bigger picture, as I’m not in the weeds doing, training and thinking about the how.

My experienced team are far better at the how than I ever was anyway.

The results for our clients are better.

The clarity on who is responsible is better.

The ownership of key areas within the business is better.

Everything is better and it allows me to focus on growth.

I’m sharing this with you, as I’m sure there will be some of you reading who can relate.

If you’re still thinking how, many you’d be better thinking who.

It’s had a game-changing impact on my business and maybe it could on yours also.

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