Do Hardship Hard: Interview with Stephen Ezell, Founder and CEO of Truly Free
I recently went one-on-one with Stephen Ezell, founder and CEO of Truly Free.
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?
Stephen: My career started in a garage in 2015 using a concrete mixer to make soap, so knowing my first company, Truly Free Home, has eclipsed $100 million in revenue still amazes me. I started the brand more than a decade ago to make plant-based, non-toxic cleaning and laundry solutions more accessible for families seeking safer alternatives to the chemical-laden products on the market. Today, we’re one of the leading non-toxic cleaning and laundry brands in the space, freeing more than 389,000 homes from harmful chemicals and 11.1 million single-use plastics from the environment. My first company taught me a lot about building an online business, so as I watched the world evolve over the last few years – consumers’ wallet share decreasing and the war raging on small businesses – I knew something needed to change. It has become increasingly harder for startups and emerging brands to get their foothold in today’s midst of mega-tech giants dominating the landscape. I took everything I learned from scaling my first company and expanded our business portfolio into the world of social commerce this year. My greatest challenge has been building the world’s first decentralized, revenue-sharing marketplace to revolutionize shopping and socializing for brands, creators, and consumers. Truly Free Market is home to great brands that create real jobs and are owned by incredible people. We wanted consumers to have a chance to vote on where their hard-earned dollars went while supporting great businesses in a new way. I democratized Truly Free Market to give my tools for success to the world and let brands, creators, and consumers lead the charge in this next phase of the e-commerce revolution.
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?
Stephen: Great ideas are born from great problems. It's like the saying goes, "If you want a billion-dollar idea, find a billion-dollar problem.” In the absence of a great problem, there is no great solution. In my experience, the more complicated the issue, the simpler the solution tends to be. We’re addressing a diverse set of complicated issues at Truly Free Market, intersecting small businesses, content creators, consumers, social media, free speech, and more. My business success stemmed from the problems I sought to solve. Truly Free Market aims to fill a gap for small business owners struggling to tackle present-day challenges on their own. If you want a great idea, solve a big problem. If you’re trying to come up with a great idea, look at where the biggest problems lie, and solve those.
Adam: How did you know your business idea was worth pursuing? What advice do you have on how to best test a business idea?
Stephen: Simple: Sell it. Customer-fund your business. How quickly can you get someone to raise their hand and pay for a solution? My first company became a multi-million dollar business before I ever asked for an investment dollar. No matter how big your dream is, make sure the problem you’re looking to solve is equal distance to your dream, and that your dream and solution are just as big as the problem you’re seeking to solve. While the typical path to starting a business usually starts with buying a domain, creating a logo, raising money, and funding your business, your best investor is always a paying customer. If you can get someone to pre-pay for an idea, you know you’re onto something. For example, we launched Truly Free Market this year to help small businesses and consumers survive against inflation and mega-tech giants’ dominance in the e-commerce landscape. Since launching in May, we’ve already saved three small businesses from insolvency, and we’re just getting started. This type of result or proof early on will help you determine if the idea or issue you’re trying to solve is big enough, or if you’re wasting your time investing in a bad idea.
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?
Stephen: Do hardship hard. Before you can elevate your business, you have to do the hard, manual work first. Too often as business owners, we try to build a fully automated car with all the bells and whistles before actually driving it. You have to be hands-on to prove the value of your business, no matter how much pain or difficulty it brings. Make it hurt before attaching a monetary value to your idea. It’s only after you have enough proof points that you can begin focusing on automating the most challenging aspects of your business. Stop wasting your time investing in bad ideas – test them rigorously before thinking about the next steps. Start small, validate your product or idea, and iterate from there before investing in larger, more automated solutions.
Adam: What are your best sales and marketing tips?
Stephen: Conventional marketing ideology says we market to create customers, but the only way to accomplish this is by providing a great experience with your products or services. The best marketing and sales teams create value for customers outside your core products or services. For example, if you sell a physical product, provide how-tos and recipes that empower customers to embody your brand. You and your team know everything about your company, how your product or service works, and how to have the best experience using it. Many companies wrongfully assume their customer will “get it” – but they don’t. We must intentionally guide the customer on a congruent and cohesive journey from the ad through the transformation that occurs once they become a long-term customer. Delivering high-level customer service is an essential part of marketing and sales. Your teams should create an exceptional customer experience by exceeding basic expectations. Ensure your marketing and sales teams have a deep understanding of customer needs to deliver consistent, reliable services across each interaction. Exceptional customer experiences are memorable and can make your customers feel valued and understood, which will help earn their trust, loyalty, and long-term support over time.
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?
Stephen: The best leaders stay hungry and humble – they're always in the trenches with their team. No one wants to run through walls for a leader who doesn’t get their hands dirty first. The most effective leaders are never content. They always strive for more, no matter how successful they’ve been. Our society is in desperate need of radical innovators who lead hard without entitlement. If you want to take your leadership skills to the next level, stay hungry and be hard, and you might change the world.
Adam: What is your best advice on building, leading, and managing teams?
Stephen: The key to effectively building, managing, and leading teams starts by aligning how your team thinks and perceives new ideas and challenges. This year, we introduced flywheels to train our executives and team leaders, and they’ve been an invaluable tool. Our flywheels teach our company’s inner workings, operational strategies, governance approaches, and how to evaluate the quality of new ideas. When your team is in sync, everyone moves and works together seamlessly, which drives greater long-term success. Effective team leadership requires alignment – meeting people where they are. You can’t lead or manage others if you're not on the same page, so align first, and you’ll grow further, together.
Adam: What are your three best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives, and civic leaders?
Stephen:
Build a community of like-hearted people: Your customers, employees, and vendors should share similar beliefs, or at least believe in your vision. Otherwise, you don’t have a business. Create a community of like-hearted people that you can surround yourself with to establish a strong foundation for success.
Turn customers into evangelists: Train your customers to advocate for your brand, or you have buyers instead of customers. Having strong brand advocates is a powerful way to cultivate brand loyalty and favorability.
Diversify: A one-legged stool will always fall, and nobody can sit on a monopod. Diversification is key to building a stable business, from expanding your talent pool to creating multiple revenue streams. Relying on a single source for any aspect of your business leaves you vulnerable and unstable.
Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received?
Stephen: I grew up surrounded by the best examples of hard work and dedication. Throughout my childhood, I was immersed in every aspect of the restaurant industry, working at an Italian restaurant in the South Bronx area of New York City, Yolanda’s, five to six days a week. I’d take the bus or a taxi to work, always arriving eager to learn from my childhood hero and mentor, “Uncle Vinny.” He was my hero for many reasons, but his ability to excel at any task in the restaurant always intrigued me. One day, I asked him why he was good at doing everything, and he said, “You’re going to make a great businessman one day.” It wasn’t until years later that I fully grasped his message: Know your business inside and out, including each role and how it operates, so you can prevent anyone from taking advantage of you. In other words, be aware of everything happening within your company so you can take the reins at any point. You don’t have to be a master in every discipline, but you should know enough about your business so there’s not a single point of failure outside of you.
Adam Mendler is an entrepreneur, writer, speaker, educator, and nationally recognized authority on leadership. Adam is 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. 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. Adam has written extensively on leadership and related topics, 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. Adam teaches graduate-level courses on leadership at UCLA and is an advisor to numerous companies and leaders. A Los Angeles native, Adam is a lifelong Angels fan and an avid backgammon player.
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