Read the 5-minute summary for this episode and many others at owl.ceo. The OWL (Owner Wisdom Library) turns insights from more than 1,200 Exit Coach Radio interviews into short, practical lessons for business owners on growth, leadership, operations, and exit planning.
What branding fears keep high-potential companies stuck, and what does it take to break through a growth plateau?
In this episode of Exit Coach Radio, Bill Black talks with Meghan Lynch, CEO of Six-Point Creative, about the branding and marketing challenges that often hold second-stage companies back from their next phase of growth.
Meghan shares insights on the fears that limit growth, what defines a second-stage company, common mistakes businesses make when rebranding, and how leaders can hire and manage marketing expertise more effectively. This conversation is especially useful for business owners, family businesses, and leadership teams looking to strengthen their market position, improve brand strategy, and support long-term growth.
Topics include:
brand strategy
growth plateaus
rebranding mistakes
family business branding
hiring marketing expertise
Listen for more conversations on leadership, growth, succession, and exit planning through Exit Coach Radio.
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Exit Coach Bill Black interviews Top Advisors for Tips, Ideas & Precautions for Business Owners who want to grow and protect their company value and plan for a successful Business Sale or Transfer. Listen daily so you can be well-planned!
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That's SPA CE 80. To match with a licensed therapist today, go to Talkspace.com and enter promo code. Hi everyone, it's Bill Black, the exit coach from the Exit Coach radio show. You know, one of the biggest questions I get on the show is what exactly goes into a business exit plan and when should I start creating mine? Well, I always tell people that the best time to start was 5 years ago, but the next best time is now because you never know when you might need it. So we put together a free report that describes what an exit plan is and what you should know. You can get it free by texting exit plan with no spaces to 44222. That's exit plan to 44222. Again, text exit plan to 44222. Welcome to the Exit Coach Radio show, the show for baby boomer business owners who are looking for cutting edge information as they plan their 3 to 10 year business succession and exit. Every week we interview top professional advisors for their best tips, strategies, and precautions so you can be well planned. And now here's your host, the exit coach Bill Black. And thank you for listening. It's a pleasure to have you with me and You know, we interview a wide variety of advisers, as I mentioned earlier, over 1500 advisers have been on Exitoach Radio. So if you think about it and you want to listen to 20 minutes of business oriented information, head to wherever you listen to podcasts and look for Exit Coach Radio. My next guest Megan Lynch is the CEO of Six Point Creative, a brand strategy agency that helps second stage companies break through growth plateaus. As part of her mission to help small business challenge the Goliaths, Megan has served as an expert adviser to second stage clients in a wide range of industries from fast casual restaurants to industrial manufacturers, and Megan was named an Enterprising Woman of the Year in 2019. And enjoys testing her limits as an endurance runner. Welcome to the show, Megan. Thanks so much for joining me. Thanks so much. I'm glad to be here. My pleasure. Well, you have an interesting background, I'd love to hear more about that. Tell our listeners a little bit more about, about you and your business, and um and we'll get into some of the questions. Yeah, sure, so, um, I started 6. it's around 2007 just as the, the market was crashing, so made it through one group recession and, um, yeah, perfect timing and, um, basically when we started we were very like sort of generic local regional full service um marketing agency and I'll put full service in in air quotes because it was, you know, a few of us, a few smart people in a room, you know, just kind of getting stuff done. And over the years as I started to grow that business and kind of get myself more educated about what it means to grow and lead a company, I started joining more peer round tables and um and really educating myself because I don't have a background in um in business or anything like that so um. And while I was doing that I just started spending more and more time with um a lot of like family owned businesses, second generation businesses um closely held businesses that that people were starting, um, you know, kind of growing and trying to sustain and I just realized like oh like. These are my people like this. I love working with um with these kinds of businesses that are devoted to their communities and are really trying to make something sustainable for themselves, their families, their employees um and it was. Also where I started to realize that the brand strategy work that I was doing for other kinds of companies was like particularly helpful to these companies that they didn't often really know how to build equity in their brand or how to use brand strategy to to create business outcomes. There, there's a lot, there's many um facets of what you do that, that intrigues me, uh, but one question I have before we get into it is, what do you, uh, when you, when you say a second stage company, tell us what you mean by that. Yeah, so second stage companies are between 10 and 100 employees. It's usually around then you then you start to have this tipping point early on of starting to feel some of these like. Um, just pains of like, oh we used to just grow with no problem and now we're kind of plateauing or it's not as easy to get customers as it used to be or we need a lot more processes or the people problems are getting out of control all of those kinds of like early stage pains um and then later on in second stage often the issues are much more. About, OK, well, how you know now that we have, you know, processes and systems in place and we're really ready to grow, how do we keep alignment, um, how do we kind of bridge where we came from and who we used to be with what is going to kind of get us to this like next level and not kind of like lose the DNA of who we are. In the like growth and scaling process um so that kind of tends to be like what what second stage companies are all about and it's sort of like both uh a uniquely painful business life stage but also kind of a uniquely exciting and um and yeah just transformational one if you can make it through second stage you can do anything. Very good. And um you know, I'll I'll use a golf analogy. I know a lot of people when they start, they start tracking their handicap and it's probably in the 20s or something very high and it's, it's fairly easy with some, you know, regular practice to get that down to about an 18 or 17. And then you get into the next, the next phase, maybe this is where the second stage comes in, where you have to start changing your game to get better. You have to start changing how you do things to get better, right? And of course, you know, and then people go crazy after that trying to get better, but there are a lot of businesses. Yeah, go ahead. So no, I was just gonna say one of the things that we often remind our clients is like what got you here won't get you there that you can't, yeah, what whatever that whatever made you a better golfer early on you have to kind of get into more like nuance thesse work to make that next leap. And that's where you need, uh, that's where you really need an outsider to help you um to maybe because there are rules of the road and tricks of the trade. So there are, there are things that need to be probably looked at differently and implemented. What are some of the fears that hold high potential companies back from growth? Yeah, I mean, I think that that fear of loss is, it's a very strong human feeling and I feel like particularly for second stage companies, for family businesses, it is. It is something that really does strongly hold them back from from growing and from even building equity in their company because because they have a lot to lose, right? Like they have employees who are counting on them, they have a reputation, they have customers who are counting on them. Um, oftentimes their identity is very tied up, you know, by this point in the business and kind of what they do in their community. Sometimes they are like pillars of the community and so the stakes are not low for them and, uh, but I feel like sometimes they let them. Themselves get so afraid of like oh well if we change anything we're going to lose what we have and um and I think that you know in our experience you can kind of have both right like you can keep what you've built and you can also make the changes needed to kind of position yourself for that next next week. So it's a kind of a case of if it ain't broke, don't fix it, but they don't realize that it is broke or it's not going to, you know, it's not going to achieve um. High growth from here on out if they don't make some changes and you know, I think one of the the areas that might hold back some companies is they've always done it this way and I work with a lot of family businesses and they they basically, there's a new generation coming up saying. Things have changed. We need to change up how this business looks, how it looks to the world. Um, what are some of the brand strategies that you run into that need to be put in place for family businesses? Yeah, such a good question. So I think particularly for family businesses and especially ones that are kind of like working that generational like conflict or transition, um. Oh, a lot of what they're dealing with, I, I would say like over. The Of all the family businesses that we work with, I would say most of them when they come to us have 70% or more of their customer concentration in one market or even in just a few big customers big relationships, and it's just super, super common when you've had this like long track record of success family. Businesses are very relationship oriented um and so this idea of like doing anything new becomes also sort of like a threat to the stability of the business because like oh well if we enter this new market if we do too much digital we're gonna lose these customers who got us to where we are um but at the same time. That, that level of concentration is so high risk that it's really not. A sustainable way for you know to to be around for the next 2030, 50 years. So, uh, so a lot of the work that we do is around helping them diversify that customer base and really say like, OK, well how do we talk to these existing customers, make sure that we are not gonna lose them create a strong communication plan around whatever is happening. And also look at some of these new opportunities that are on the table and pick the ones that are the strongest and also craft a strategy that opens up some new business diversifies the business um strengthens the brand, um, so I think yeah that brand strategy becomes a lot about that um. That diversification piece, uh, especially kind of like as a first, uh, problem to tackle. In the in the uh COVID environment and hopefully post-COVID environment, things have changed obviously over the last year or so, and it is have a lot of people been forced to change their branding to to appeal to the online marketplace more and to the, you know, the the worldwide market, if you will, the companies that might have been perceived as too Um, regional in the past, uh, as they changed to more of an online footprint, are they, are they, what, what are some of the things that they're doing, um, to, to reflect that? Yeah, I mean we've seen just obviously like an explosion in e-commerce and even for brands that historically have not dipped their toe into e-commerce or really haven't paid much attention to it they really started seeing growth in the business case for. Or like, OK, well we're getting growth and we're not even doing anything so maybe we really need to do this or they were seeing their competitors grow while they were staying out of that game so so that's that's definitely something and I think you know for a lot of companies. I think one of the things to realize about digital is that like it's really not different like the basics are the same. You create good relationships, you're authentic, you are clear and consistent in your messaging, you know, the same, the same like true basics that made up that make other channels effective are the same here. I think it's where people get tripped up, it's like. They don't know what they need to pay attention to. They don't know which channel is right for them. They don't know where their customers are they don't know where their perspective customers. so then they get like frozen with like we don't even know where to start and so often the the starting point that we that we use with our clients so that we, you know I would counsel anybody to do because you can do it on your own you don't need us is um is to just start you know surveying an interview. your customers and talking to them and saying like what is your not not about like satisfaction surveys but like what is your life like like how often are you online? What sites do you go to, you know what devices do you use, you know, just kind of understand what their buying behavior is like, um, you know, in a way that's relevant to your business. Business, but all you need to do is do like 10 or 12 of those interviews and you already start seeing some patterns and it starts to demystify, you know, companies like, oh my gosh, do I have to worry about TikTok? Do I, you know, should I be on Instagram or Facebook or am I, should I be on LinkedIn or should I be doing e-commerce, uh, your customers will tell you that information. We're just often for whatever reason, uh, reluctant to ask. Yeah, so many platforms, so little time, you know, one of the things I've heard from companies is that as they start to think about future generation ownership or or what or whatnot or passing the baton that they'll change from a name-based company to maybe initials instead of the name or if they say like we're the where the Orange County blah blah blah, they'll they'll take out that region so that they're more so that they're not confined in the consumer's, you know, mind to to only working in a certain region. What are some of the other common mistakes you see that companies make when they're contemplating rebranding? Um, I think sometimes it's like stressing too much about those, those details. I mean, I think sometimes taking away a place identifier and stuff can be helpful, but. I think sometimes we think that we put way too much weight in a name and we're like, oh, this name has got to like explain the full scope of what we do and capture it. And I often think that's wasted energy. Like you think of all of the most valuable brand names, they're all like nonsense names, you know, Xerox and Apple and Google and, you know, it's like the Name is what you make it and your brand is what people say about you when you're not in the room, to quote Jeff Bezos, um, you know, it is your reputation and so if you build equity in a brand name, I like it always kind of like hurts me a little bit in in the gut when people change their name to initials because it's like, oh. You know, even if it was a person's name, you know, that name has personality, that name has emotional connection, and you just stripped all that away and, you know, became initials and Um, you know, where it's like I, I would work rather, you know, like let's change the story, let's tell the story, let's not necessarily jump right to a name change or a logo change or whatever. Sometimes it's really about communication strategy, not those kind of like superficial elements that I think sometimes we spend a little too much time on. Mhm. Very, very good advice. Um, how about for uh some of these multi-generational family businesses where they've, you know, it started with the parents. OK, then, then they have their their few children get involved. Now those children had Had a few children and now you know the 3rd generation is now 15 potential people getting involved in the business and pretty soon you have this big kind of mushrooming number of people that want to be involved in the business, whether they're qualified or not. What about have you run into situations like that where families have said, look, let's do this. Let's let's get involved in the community in another way maybe with a family foundation. And really get involved with some um charitable groups or others and let's give some of those family members a job of, of working with that. How, how do you figure out how best to show up in the community as as a family business. Mm, I love that question. Yeah, and I think that there's such power again, oftentimes these family business brands and once they get to that like 3rd generation stage, they, they truly are very powerful in their community and their reputation, their name, um just kind of their presence at certain. Um, events and, and things like that are, it's just, it's very kind of like symbolically powerful and then also, uh, you know, it can be economically powerful for a community. So I, I always love it when you can kind of like create a, a much wider brand impact and brand story by getting community mem uh um Family members involved in different ways so like you said, setting up a foundation, you know, sponsoring events, creating like marquee events in in the community, and then oftentimes too in they're often leaders in their own industry as well so I think um to to think both locally of like where can we make impact and where can we kind of build. The brand and the story and the loyalty locally and then also if you work nationally or internationally where could we also expand the value of the story. In our industry, you know, how could we as a family get involved in policy in, you know, trade organizations, you know, things like that where it does really, you know, just being able to have a connection back to the family, even if you're not involved in the day to day of the business. Getting to know the industry being influencers in the industry, all of that comes back to the family eventually and supports the work of the business and supports the equity that you're building in the brand and therefore in the value of the company, right? um. So, yeah, yeah, it's such a good question. I think it's such an overlooked asset that people don't usually think about spreading out um their influence in that way. So yeah, I'm really glad you asked that. Yeah, it's branding's really interesting, especially as a lot of our listeners head towards their, they're thinking about exiting their business. Maybe they're thinking about selling it to a much larger business in their industry as just a strategic sale, and so they need to really work with someone to think about, well, how do we start showing up better, differently. Um, in, in our industry so that we're, we're not begging them to look at us. They're, they're begging us to let them look at us. Um, and so it's really important what you do is really, really important, and how do our listeners learn more about you and, and get in touch? Sure, um, so our website is 6. Creative, so that's S I X P O I N T Creative.com, and we set up a landing page for your listeners. So if you just do backslash exit coach, um there is a free brand assessment on there so if people want to take that quiz you get a customized report. Um, based on the answers to kind of see like where is your brand, you know, if you're thinking about exiting, how much work is there to do, and where should you kind of start and focus first, so that's a helpful tool and there's a couple of other resources as well about building brand value in your company right on that site. Great information. We, we went through a lot of information pretty quickly, and I hope you'll come back and share more with us down the road cause I think again we just kind of started to scratch the surface, but you really gave our listeners a lot of great tips today, Megan. I really appreciate it and thanks so much for joining me today. Thanks so much for having me on, Bill. I appreciate it. To exit Coach Radio. It's true that some things change as we get older, but if you're a woman over 40 and you're dealing with insomnia, brain fog, moodiness, and weight gain, you don't have to accept it as just another part of aging. 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