Pushing through isn’t just for executives, it is for partners too. We couldn’t do our work if school system partners didn’t commit to changing old systems, mindsets, and habits. Change can be uncomfortable. It also doesn’t happen over night. Still, when we chart a course to impact we help partners reach it no matter what. Kids deserve us making ourselves uncomfortable so that they can be comfortable. Families deserve us wading into the deep end of change work. Communities count on us to raise our voices and lend a hand. Reach out if you would like to learn more about working with us. It’s time to put families first. www.redappleedco.com
#Businessschooldidnotteachme Sometimes you have to just push through. There is nuance between executive and entrepreneur. Let’s talk about it. I’ve been in my Executive MBA program for a few weeks. While I’m STILL new to the official stuff of executive leadership, what I do know is that an executive gets the benefit of being hired to run an organization that already exists. For better or worse, an executive gets a team and policies and infrastructure and KPIs and maybe even a Board of Directors. The relationships may not all be roses but there are people in place with defined roles and responsibilities. An entrepreneur has to build all of that from scratch and the game is not the same. As an entrepreneur, I have to build the business that I want to see impact the world. I don’t get to just walk into it. This means that when I don’t hire well or raise enough or project demand correctly all of those issues come to rest on my doorstep. There are no layers to insulate the impact of my decision making…at least not in the beginning. The risk involved with my business living and dying by the choices I make in real time can feel paralyzing. While there are business school lessons that can assist with my choices, they don’t feel as close to the reality I face as I would like. I’m learning that some of this just has to come through coaching, community, and lived experience. That’s why entrepreneurs need each other. We need to know that the messy middle doesn’t last forever and that there are others who have been this way before and survived. I don’t just mean the mavericks whose families loaned them money to start a business in some California garage and they later went on to greatness. I mean the everyday people who had to bootstrap their dreams and are thriving in a lane they have carved out for themselves. Those warriors are my reminders that I am in the right place at the right time doing the right thing. This week has been wild. I’ve had promising conversations with program partners, learned about possible new revenue streams and was called in to present for a school system I’ve been working for years to get in front of. I’ve also had to step back on some projects I love, delay my teacher programming due to funding, and take apology treats to my youngest daughter’s teacher because I was late picking her up one too many times. It’s the messy middle and I’m pushing through. I tell myself that eventually I will be that executive I read about in class. My full team will be in place with department heads and weekly reports and layers between me and the day in and day out of the work. But today? I’m still here in the middle. I’m growing and that’s enough. #nonprofit #leadership #mba #executive #leadershipmatters