066: Scaling Up Without Selling Out with Laura Novak Meyer

A common myth is that scaling a business means you have to compromise the core values, culture and human-friendly qualities that the business originally started with. In today’s episode, Laura Novak Meyer joins me to share what she learned in the process of scaling her business while keeping it true to its core. Laura is an entrepreneur who is one of only 3% of women business owners to grow their company to more than one million dollars in revenue. Ready? Let’s do this! Key Takeaways:[0:53] Laura Novak Myers – The owner & founder of Little Nest Portraits[1:46] Laura shares her origin story.[2:30] How did Laura go from an independent photographer to a retail photography company?[5:35] Opening her first little Nest location.[6:38] What made Laura hire her first employee?[9:12] Did Laura have any entrepreneurial background before starting her own business?[10:25] Why do people cling to that divide between creative and business?[13:21] Laura’s 3 seminal challenges and lessons learned from them.[17:46] How did she overcome her concern for hurting people’s feelings while giving feedback.[20:32] Something Laura is very passionate about.[22:37] Laura doesn’t believe you can grow without constantly reinforcing your values.[25:35] Why didn’t Laura tell her employees about franchising at first?[28:52] Some of Laura’s spark moments throughout her career.[31:07] Laura’s best practices for maintaining a sense of calmness.[33:34] The unspoken pressures every entrepreneur is faced with.[36:52] Franchising was harder than Laura expected it to be.[41:36] The most unanticipated challenge Laura is facing.[44:14] If people remember only one thing about Laura and her body of work, what would it be? Mentioned in This Episode:Little Nest PortraitsRadical Candor by Campbell ScottFierce Conversations by Susan ScottThe One Minute Manager by Ken BlanchardBuild to Sell by John Warrillow This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.productiveflourishing.com/subscribe