A few weeks ago, Adelsberger Marketing celebrated 10 years in business. And on today’s episode of the Content Machine podcast, I want to look back at a few lessons that I’ve learned over that decade. The first couple of things have to do with leadership. It is an interesting thing to learn about the value of leadership as someone who’s went through a lot of leadership development classes in high school and college. Hearing it so much, it can become blasé or devalued or just common, that leadership is really important. But as I’ve continued this business and observing things in our society, leadership becomes more and more valuable, and that burden for the company largely falls on me. Seeing the value of leadership is definitely something that I’ve learned. But it’s also because the burden of that mostly falls on me, I’ve learned that it can be a lonely endeavor. All the problems I run into in this business are not unique to me or Adelsberger Marketing. They happen to most anyone leading a business or within a company. I have a responsibility that no one else shares, and so I don’t think that I would have guessed that that would have felt like a burden 10 years ago like I do today. I also would not have guessed that the most joy I find from the business comes from helping my team members create a life for themselves and seeing them grow and develop and see their families grow and change. I’m not the best business owner, but I’ve gotten to see my people buy their first houses and have children buy cars, and that is some of the favorite things that I’ve gotten to do as a business owner. In business, it matters a lot that you are paying your bills. But I’ve also grown a bigger appreciation for the amount that people matter. Caring for developing the culture that cares for people may be the thing that sets our business apart from so many others. Because as our theme was a few years ago, if you want to go fast or go alone, if you want to go further, go together. And I can see that even more clearly now. There’s a limit to the work that I can do, the amount of effort that I can put in and how hard I can push on a goal. But when I bring others to the table, we can do it together and go further and accomplish more. I have been fortunate to find people who are capable and good culture fits and willing to work And hopefully, I’ll be able to continue to find people that help us do that. I’ve learned a lot about marketing in a world that’s moving faster and faster. And in our society, niching and differentiation becomes more and more critical. Niching is about finding a horizontal or vertical niche that helps you be special and defines who your customers are or the services in a way that allows you to be successful. I think the future for niche services is growing, and I think it’s a lot clearer to me now how important it is than it was 10 years ago. And so I’m trying to reckon with that from inside our own company, working through what that could look like for our future so that we could be more niched, so that we can be more competitive. Differentiation continues to take on a bigger and bigger role in our marketing plans for our customers. Having niches is a differentiator, but that also applies to all the clients that we have. Clients who try to compete with every person who sells the thing that they sell everywhere are going to not succeed like those who have a niche. And so we are increasingly pushing our clients to help differentiate themselves and find ways for them to set themselves apart from the crowd. Not just your typical marketing ways, but in a very crowded market, being able to separate yourself from everyone else is crucial. And then one added responsibility I found for myself is that I need to be working six months or a year or two years ahead of the rest of my team. Because of that, finding a project manager to help manage the day-to-day gives me the flexibility to focus on the bigger picture things, which is also something I never would have guessed when I opened the company. And finally, I’ve come to realize that burnout is a real thing. I would hear people talk about burnout, but I had never experienced it. And so I wasn’t sure that if I was just getting older or the work was more stressful. But now I’ve realized that I’ve nearly burnt out several times. But now I can identify when it’s happening. The last time I felt it, I could feel it coming. I could identify it, which is new to me. So I was able to take precautionary measures to ensure that I didn’t completely burn out and leave the company in a bad spot. And now I know that I’m out of that spot and I’m ready to rock and roll again. Business is way harder than I thought it would be, but fortunately, we’ve got a great team of people that is helping to build this in a way that it will be sustainable. Hopefully, we’ll see you again in 10 years, where we can talk about what I’ve learned over 20 years in business. Thank you for supporting Adelsberger Marketing. Thank you for listening to the Content Machine podcast. If you found this episode interesting, share it with a friend, and stay subscribed for future episodes where we talk about marketing, culture, and leadership in the small business environment.
