26. Founders, Families, & (Rocket) Fuel w/ Katie Merrill (originally aired Sep 2022)

This is a recast of a previously aired episode about Katie Merrill's entrepreneurship journey while also building a family. Hear Katie’s story as she walks host Jim Barnish through the challenges she has faced and continues to learn from.

As a go-getter with a strong operations background, Katie was hyper focused on the day-to-day grind, but learned over time that she had to get out of her own way. Finding a COO combined with efforts to scale her sales team has been a game changer for the evolution of the business. Freeing up her time as the founder from the daily operations has allowed her to prioritize other areas to grow.

Key Takeaways

• Shift focus from the day-to-day operations to other key strategic areas like product evolution, strategy, etc.
• You might be a founder, but that doesn’t mean you know everything. Set aside your insecurities and don’t be afraid to ask questions to mentors that have been there before.
• Put effort into building a scalable sales engine. It’s a lot easier when founders aren’t the only ones selling.

Resources

Katie's LinkedIn

B-Lynk website

Dare to Lead by Brené Brown

Rocket Fuel by Gino Wickman

About Our Guest

Katie Butcher-Merrill is CEO and Founder of B-Lynk, providing training services, including sales and end-user training on the Smart-Lynk managed service platform for over 40 BroadSoft based Service Providers and Hosted Unified Communications companies globally.

Prior to this, Katie held supply chain management roles at both General Mills and The Mosaic Company. She is a graduate of Iowa State University.

About The Dirt Podcast

The Dirt is about getting real with businesses about the true state of their companies and going clear down to the dirt in solving their core needs as a business. Dive deep with your host Jim Barnish as we uncover The Dirt with some of the world's leading brands.

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Orchid Black is a new kind of growth services firm. We partner with tech-forward companies to build smarter, better, game-changing businesses.

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