Hiring a CEO to Run Things (and Get Life Back)

Yes. I think I had definitely connected those dots and started feeling some friction probably on both of our ends there for a while.

I think I was probably demonstrated on the fact that at this point we're six months in and I'm still driving three and a half hours every day for that entire time. I was starting to realize that I was very. Since day one, since the reaction I got on day one, I was very concerned about retention.

So they had come in right as I was coming in. So they're a relatively new employee as well. I wanted to give them the Runway they needed.

To my not credit my ownership. I'm not a sales guy. I don't have a sales background.

I was not, I was not an. I'm not a great like sales manager. I'm not there being able to coach super well.

I can try. I even jumped and did follow ups. But it's just I'm not the expert from whom someone can glean wisdom. So eventually after the holidays, we hired a sales coach to work with her again.

Just trying to give her the best chance. The other thing was it still was our sole source of sales. We have a great sort of incoming marketing machine, incoming lead marketing machine system where the leads just all come to us.

We just need to close them. So that part's great and was great, but the closing part was hard and I was very hesitant to let go of someone before I had a replacement for that person either I was gonna sell. And I had a few times when she had been out of the office.

And honestly, my conversion rate was sort of low. I loved it, but I just. I think I was less good at it than I thought.

We had a gal in the office who actually did a great job every time she did sales, but we had a full time other job for her to be doing that I was just really hesitant to make a change that would both rock the cultural boat because the team did really like her, at least our office team, and would leave me without a salesperson for who knows how long.

So soon enough, I guess, and this all overlaps of the period in which it starts getting darker outside, it starts getting more tiring for me to be leaving not only a few minutes before the sunrise, but maybe an hour or two before the sunrise. And honestly, life just started getting really hard. I think sort of January, February, March of 24.