One Size Fits No One

One size never fits all. Mainly because of this: we shouldn't be trying to fit "all" ever.

It's true that we can't please all the people all the time. But we that means we shouldn't ever start to try pleasing all the people all the time. That goes for customers, sales, marketing...

...and talent.

When I talk to serial founders and family enterprise owners about their culture, we often rabbit trail to hiring practices, retention practices, compensation, benefits, etc. that are there for everyone's benefit. Everyone = all.

I thought I just said that we shouldn't be trying to fit "all."

I did. What we often miss is at the heart of the "hire slowly, let 'em go quickly" philosophy is that building a culture for all is building a culture for no one.

The great thing about owning a business is that we can create whatever workplace culture that we want. Should we have an employee handbook? Yes. But that freedom to build our culture) should be based on who we are, who our customers are, and who we work diligently to attract, engage, develop, and retain. Customers and talent.

That's why I love to share stories about hirers who find marketing important. We can tell both our customer stories and our talent stories.

Our talent stories should have an inward (internal marketing focus) but be branded well enough to share outside. Shared by our talented employees and employee owners.

And if we master that after trial and error, we will master this with our customers as well.

Master one. Master the other.

ryan

Ryan Kauth is a coach for serial entrepreneurs, family enterprise owners, and family business next gen; a fractional executive; university lecturer; technical advisor; and serial founder. He has no standard coaching program, because one size fits no one, but his 2025 coaching retainers start at $1,000-$2,500 (all $25,000+ in value). All his coaching retainers in 2025 come with regular coaching appointments and your ability to get a phone call back within 24 business hours in 2025. These 2025 coaching retainers are limited, as Ryan only coaches or technically advises a select few mutual matches at a time. He has one coaching client slot left for 2025, and you can talk to him about that by clicking here.