I recently went one on one with Marthin De Beer, founder and CEO of BrightPlan.

Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. How did you get here? What experiences, failures, setbacks or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth?

Marthin: I grew up in South Africa and have always been drawn to adventure, even at a very young age. This hunger to see and experience new things led me to my first solo flight in my teen years. When I was about 15, I flew my first cross-country flight and ended up getting lost. My initial instinct, as would be for most, was to panic. It was this moment I came to the realization that staying calm and navigating the situation to the best of my ability needed to be my route to finding my destination. This experience taught me the greatest life lesson that I have applied to all my business ventures: the more stressful a situation is, the calmer you need to be. Through this mantra, I’ve been able to succeed in my passion for solving customer challenges and delivering business results through innovation.

Having had the opportunity to work across a wide variety of industries all over the world has been the most instrumental to my career growth. I have helped launch and develop nine different startups from incubation to successful businesses and execute various acquisitions on both a small and large scale. What I’ve learned over the years is that motivation is key. I’ve been fortunate to have led great teams through difficult situations, motivating them to achieve even the most courageous of goals. At one point I was even faced with turning around and selling a struggling billion-dollar business. The challenges I’ve experienced over the years, such as these, have taught me the value of leading with both integrity and transparency.

Adam: How did you come up with your business idea? What advice do you have for others on how to come up with great ideas?

Marthin: I have always been a firm believer that financial wellness is a universal need and is comparable to quality health care and education. During my time at Cisco, my wife suffered a sudden health issue. To care for her, I took a leave of absence from my position, and during my leave, I discovered how closely intertwined health and personal financial stress is. My investments were not aligned with my life goals and I soon realized the guidance financial advisors were giving myself was not always in my family’s best interest. I knew there was a better way to navigate these financial challenges, and that I wasn’t alone in my experience. This is what inspired me to create BrightPlan, a Total Financial Wellness solution built to lead all employees to financial success. 

My advice for coming up with great ideas stems from solving real problems that have societal impact. You must ask yourself, “Is there a need for this? How can my idea benefit society and the world as a whole?”

Something I tell entrepreneurs is to be humble enough to realize you cannot do any of this on your own. The great thing about business is that when something is successful, it’s a team achievement. Make sure your idea has a great, forward-thinking team behind it, as this will give you a support system when launching your idea into the market.

Adam: How did you know your business idea was worth pursuing? What advice do you have on how to best test a business idea? 

Marthin: First, figure out what problem you are trying to address that doesn’t yet have a good solution in the market. Making sure your idea has a product-market fit is crucial. Once you’ve validated the idea, jump in with both feet and continuously test and improve it. When testing out your business idea, it’s important to make the leap. Making the move from South Africa to Silicon Valley was the riskiest decision I’ve ever made, but it was also the most rewarding. Once you’ve done your homework, don’t be afraid to take risks.

Adam: What are the key steps you have taken to grow your business? What advice do you have for others on how to take their businesses to the next level?            

Marthin: My key recommendations for growing a business are listening to your customers to understand and validate pain points and then innovate to deliver meaningful solutions, while closely monitoring the industry and market landscape. Helping your customers solve their toughest challenges through your solutions and listening to their pain points allows you to see the big picture and where you can best add value. Innovation and technology are actually the easiest contributors to growing a business, believe it or not. You can have the greatest product, but if it doesn’t solve a compelling customer problem, the timing isn’t right and your go-to-market isn’t refined, or you’re not well-funded, your business will be unable to grow and prosper.

Innovation needs to constantly be a top priority. To achieve an innovative culture, innovation has to be a part of your organization’s DNA. This is no easy feat, and in order to be successful, this must start with senior leadership teams as they are in charge of implementing these initiatives throughout the entire organization. Without an innovative mindset, it will be difficult for your company to thrive and grow.

Adam: What are your best sales and marketing tips?  

Marthin:

• Do not underestimate the broader support you need outside of your sphere of influence to make an idea a billion-dollar business. How you leverage the wisdom of the crowd, facilitate group collaboration and mobilize stakeholders will determine the success of an idea. This is true with sales and marketing, but also other aspects of your business.

• Believe in your product and your people. As your product’s biggest advocate, make the “why” for your product clear in all capacities: the essential need of the product, the behavior for adopting your product, the passion and purpose of the product.

• Having an aligned go-to-market strategy and a tight cohesion between sales and marketing is critical. They should feel like and work together like one team and in sync every step of the way.

Adam: In your experience, what are the defining qualities of an effective leader? How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level?  

Marthin:

• Having a vision; passion combined with confident humility are essential qualities of an effective leader. One must work with integrity and transparency to develop a workplace foundation where others can innovate and creativity thrives.

• A great leader admits when they are wrong. I’ve had ideas that simply didn’t work. Relying on my team to give me honest feedback is critical to strong leadership—and knowing when it’s okay to say, “you were right.”

• Aspiring leaders can take their skills to the next level by focusing on how they can support their team and leverage their broader networks. Leaders focus on goals, but great leaders focus on getting the right team in place to accomplish those goals.

Adam: What is your best advice on building, leading and managing teams? 

Marthin: It doesn’t matter who you work for, it matters who you work with. Your guidance will build the team, your expertise will lead the team and your support will manage the team.

Building a healthy relationship within a team takes a strategic approach from day one. A high-performing team begins with shared goals, established expectations, open communication, mutual respect, diversity and emotional intelligence – and the ability to embrace the individual differences and work styles of one another.

As a leader, you are at your best when your team is at their best. Think about when your team is thriving the most; is it solving customer problems, discovering innovation or delivering results?  To lead your team to success, focus on finding your team’s strengths and applying your expertise to guide them to the finish line or end goal.

Leadership includes many facets of management. I manage my team best when I’m helping them succeed. When one team member succeeds, we all do. I enjoy working with and motivating great people to achieve audacious goals, and to do so, I encourage creative collaboration, enable communication, delegate with care, provide feedback and offer recognition. Concentrate on managing every aspect of teamwork through growth – the beginning of the relationship to the end, and management skills will follow suit.

Adam: What are your three best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives and civic leaders?  

Marthin: Be prepared for change; market disruptions won’t always accommodate global pandemics or the expansion of our digital ecosystems. The market landscape may change, but the competition will always remain, and it’s imperative to prepare for change.

Invest in your best asset: Your people. Entrepreneurship is exciting to an individual, but success comes with a resilient, tenacious and enterprising team. The foundation to a prosperous team is a culture of care that fosters employee wellness and engagement. Incorporate wellness benefits that reduce employee stress and support employee well-being. Offer open communication to solicit feedback and insights, personalize employee engagement through authentic interaction and find ways to invest in your people.

Embrace the uncertain. Go the extra mile to learn about the leading-edge technologies in your field. Be open to innovation and failure, even at your most trying and challenging times. This spirit of innovation will lead to unexpected teachings and successes.

Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received? 

Marthin: Rome was not built in a day. 

Adam: Is there anything else you would like to share?

Marthin: I cannot stress enough the power of teams; a leader is nothing without a team to lead. The work I’m proud of most comes from the accomplishments of my team. The innovations that impact employees and their families’ relationship with their finances are what make being a leader worth the obstacles and arduous work. I’ve always dreamt of having a much bigger impact on society and working together will lead us all to making it happen.


Adam Mendler is the CEO of The Veloz Group, where he co-founded and oversees ventures across a wide variety of industries. Adam is also the creator and host of the business and leadership podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, where he goes one on one with America's most successful people - Fortune 500 CEOs, founders of household name companies, Hall of Fame and Olympic gold medal winning athletes, political and military leaders - for intimate half-hour conversations each week. Adam has written extensively on leadership, management, entrepreneurship, marketing and sales, having authored over 70 articles published in major media outlets including Forbes, Inc. and HuffPost, and has conducted more than 500 one on one interviews with America’s top leaders through his collective media projects. A top leadership speaker, Adam draws upon his insights building and leading businesses and interviewing hundreds of America's top leaders as a top keynote speaker to businesses, universities and non-profit organizations.

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