week 48: this blew my mind

humility comes before pride

thank you to over 11,000 of you who read this weekly and share with your friends and family for behind the scenes on building a million dollar business from scratch and beyond. i also include a personal note in the end so i am grateful that you let me do that without judgement.

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confession: the month of march has been a month of self reflection, doubt and uncertainty.

we hit a point where the existing customers cannot stop saying great things about us with the value they are getting, while the market conditions have been tough for new customers to come in at the pace we expected.

as a bootstrapped highly qualified team of 7, cash is king and we gotta sell consistently to keep not just from growing but practically surviving.

i have always believed that companies don’t run out of ideas, they run out of money.

this month - i had a choice to make - either do it by pressure on others to sell or do it myself as the CEO until we get to a place where we will have standard products and services and the market eases up.

so i started talking to existing customers and learning form there.

here’s what i have found:

selling to your existing customers is way lot easier.

especially because we are delivering exceptional value in their eyes.

we have been preaching in the market, focus on NRR (Net revenue retention) - meaning expand in the existing accounts.

we thought, first we would need to first focus on renewal and then expansion.

guess what - that not necessary if your customers love you.

we are expanding with some of our existing customers NOW - way before renewal.

that blew my mind.

so right now, my whole focus to get sales up in the green is to focus on existing customers and learn what we can do more while building a solid April/May pipeline.

in the process my personal prayer for myself is to stay humble as pride can quickly get in to say - look what I did like the great king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon said when he looked at all God gave him.

He was humbled quickly as the historical record indicates.

the greatest leader that the world has ever known did that by washing the feet of his followers (team) and showed them that if they want to lead, they need to learn to serve others first.

this self reflection process helped me look at role differently.

i believe I have to flip the org chart and recognize that the serving starts with me. 

i am so grateful that the team is all supporting and doing the best work of their life.

how and what we do now, is who we become tomorrow.

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on a personal note, my son served at big event at our church.

he is the youngest (blue shirt) on the serving team and Nikki (the organizer) said this about him:

“Please share this with Krish. He is such amazing young man!! I really appreciate his kindness and joy in serving!!! Love you all!!❤️”

well that warms my wife and my heart. 

if he can learn to serve today, he can earn the right to lead tomorrow.

leaders are servants first.

Krish had a joy on his face that was bigger than when he won a tennis match.

serving others has that kind of effect on you.

Leaderpoint: If you can learn to serve, you can learn to lead.