An Island Girl's Journey to the Top (Episode 41 ft. Sheena Palacios)

Growth doesn't happen where you're comfortable — it happens at the exact edge where you're not sure you can pull it off. That's not a motivational line. For Sheena Palacios, it's an operating principle.Sheena is the founder of NIFT Business Solutions, a firm built around fixing the gap that PE-backed trade companies keep creating: implementing systems without training the people who actually use them. She came up through the home services industry over two decades — starting as a customer service rep managing 17 tradesmen at a family-owned plumbing shop, surviving a private equity acquisition, and eventually building her own business after watching millions of dollars in software go to waste because no one stayed to train the end user.In this conversation, Sheena talks about how she learned to use fear as a compass, why she intentionally worked herself out of every role she ever held, what she saw break down when private equity entered a family-owned business, and how systems, process, and people are the only three variables that actually determine whether a trade business scales."If it doesn't scare me, it's not big enough. But if it scares me, then I'm definitely going to get something out of it." — Sheena Palacios21 Minutes With… is The 21st Agency's podcast for operators, leaders, and brand builders.