I feel like I’ve woken up from a dream that was running a business between 2019 and 2022.

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Those years were a magical time to start and run a business, and also a cursed one. 

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Magical because it seemed like to have a successful business, we just needed to be good at what we do. Rally On was growing rapidly, 6x between 2021 and 2022, through what seemed like no intentional effort on our part.We put almost all of our effort into doing great work, and the work kept coming. 

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But it was also a curse, because we didn’t have to develop many of the skills needed to run a business well. We developed our filmmaking skills faster than we possibly could have imagined, going from YouTube vloggers in 2019 to directors of $500k primetime commercials in 2022. 

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But we didn’t hone the ability to bring in business, or even manage the business particularly well. We didn’t need to, everything was working. The hard part of the business was the work itself, not the business. 

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Now, with the gobbledygook of this current economy, the hard part of the business is the business. 

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I’ve found myself having to rapidly upskill, making up for all of the weaknesses the outflowing tides have exposed. Sales, marketing, finance, product development, partnerships, and fundamentally, leadership. And that’s really exciting. 

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To use a really lame metaphor, my internal feeling of this is a bit like Leonidas in 300. Outnumbered, and ready to fight. Bring it on Xerxes.

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In life, whenever I’ve found myself on my heels, a different side of me emerges. This Alex digs his heels in fucking deep and will not give an inch. These moments become times of a lot of effort, a lot of stress, but most importantly, a lot of growth. And this gets me very pumped, because it means a metamorphosis is happening in myself and the business. 

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My co-founder is going through that same thing. What’s different this time from those in the past is that this time we have a great team around us.  

This evolution is happening on a deep personal level, but also on a company culture level, albeit slower as I’m still fully figuring out how to drive the change through the organization. Goal setting, metrics, accountability, and incentives seem to be the keys. All super basic, but all things I could kind of ignore when we just needed to get things done fast, get things done well, and move on. 

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Our business coach, Holly Howard, wrote a beautiful piece this week about meeting the moment. 

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“What is happening now, as the living landscape of entrepreneurship changes, is that all are being asked to rise to the occasion and meet the moment of this economy. What this requires is a different awareness of how you lead and how you lead your teams. If you find yourself, in this moment, listing out the reasons why the economy causing your business to slow without also listing the ways in which your leadership needs to change to meet this moment, you're missing the most important list. What got you here will not get you there. What Michael Jordan and the Maestro knew about these types of moments is that they were the most authentic opportunities for growth. But that growth requires focus and a healthy dose of self-confrontation. Where do you find the inspiration to rise to the occasion?”

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In this moment, I’m calling in my team - how do we rapidly iterate on what we offer? How do we better listen to our customers, and develop new methods of delivering value? How can we operate more smoothly? Leaner? How can we be more adaptive? How can we be of service? At the same time, I’m calling on our partners who we’ve been working with to provide their insights. What are you seeing? What’s missing? Where can we step in?

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Brian and I have been having a lot of conversations recently about what we’re doing and where we’re going. And the overall feeling is we’re going where we need to. We’re developing the right skills and we’re taking the right actions. If we take them consistently, maintain self-awareness and market awareness, and adjust as new data comes in, it will make us far stronger and more resilient for the future. 

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Some of those efforts are starting to bear fruit. A springtime promise of what’s to come, but we’ve got much more to do, and I’m excited about the road ahead. I know a lot of my clients are going through similar challenges. Many of them are more experienced entrepreneurs, so they’re a bit further along, but the general challenge is still the same. 

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How do we meet the moment? Where do we find the inspiration to rise to the occasion?”

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