What Happens When You Bet It All and You Bet It Wrong

It was late 2015 and Rachel should have been celebrating.

Instead, she felt like she was hitting rock bottom. She had just achieved national exposure with the surprise announcement that a revered celebrity had joined her at her early-stage consumer goods company. A little more than a year earlier, Rachel had launched the venture into the young but crowded space and her company might have been just one more forgettable launch and fizzle. But with this big announcement she had revealed a killer advantage, one she thought could propel her above the fray. She was betting her company’s future on it.

The celebrity Rachel had recruited had become a standard bearer for both expertise and purpose in Rachel’s category. He had sold tens of thousands of his product, and stood at the center of a movement that has been changing consumer behavior on a massive scale.

When the announcement of their partnership was first made, Rachel’s world exploded with buzz and the tiny startup was suddenly being treated like a major player. Not because of Rachel, its CEO — but because of its celebrity spokesman. As the coverage rolled in, Rachel believed the bet she had made had been a good one.

But as the launch arrived, Rachel’s excitement had turned into deep concern.

The partners began to experience stress and strain. Startups are inherently messy as entrepreneurs fail in a variety of ways, dust themselves off, adjust and move on. Rachel’s celebrity partner had built his personal brand on a kind of refined perfection. The stress took a toll on Rachel’s health and her ability to take the company forward. She began to contemplate a split from her high profile partner, yet all the while the press kept expectations for the celebrity-fronted brand sky high.

Rachel knew she had to act, but she was struggling with how to make it all still work.

Having advised hundreds of entrepreneurs, we’ve seen Rachel’s story repeated in just as many forms. An entrepreneur sets out with the seed of an idea, loads of passion, a modest dose of hubris and a determination to make it work no matter what. These mindsets are the entrepreneur’s most powerful assets. They bring the initial burst of energy the enterprise needs.

As the concept and the company grows, it inevitably begins to attract important assets. They take the form of partnerships that would have seemed unattainable just months before, a powerful investor, a talented team or a technological advantage. These assets are no doubt important to the enterprise’s success. But leaders often mistake them for its lifeblood. In reality, that lifeblood is the courage and determination that started the whole thing. More often than not, first partners, advantages and investors fade away, and the entrepreneur is left to either throw in the towel or to rebuild.

Fortunately, by March, Rachel had found the will to act. She told us that the breakthrough came when she confronted herself with the question “Do I still believe in myself?” When the answer came back yes, she knew was ready to move forward, this time without a celebrity killer advantage at her side.

One of the first things Rachel had to do was speak with her investors, as she was right in the middle of a major fund raise. She was terrified to tell them about her decision and she remembers feeling like she would throw up as she entered the room. But the investors listened calmly. They asked Rachel if she still felt she could do it. When she said yes, they simply nodded and said the did too. Then they signed the deal.

If regaining her courage was the first step in saving her company, committing to action was the second.

There were early signs that the market might accept a celebrity-less version of the business, but Rachel assumed correctly that she couldn’t just sit back and let the press and customers define her now faceless brand. She would have to innovate something new that her customers could focus on.

Rachel was determined to act quickly and to revamp her company by building a new brand and story. Not just a story that could fill the celebrity vacuum, but one that could propel her and her company to even greater success. As we got down to work and got to know Rachel, I could sense an optimism driving her forward — but also an anxious impatience for more growth, more impact, more meaning.

So I wasn’t surprised when Rachel and her team embraced our a purpose-driven brand concept based on the personal power her customers feel when they choose to change their lives for the better. We had helped Rachel determine that her target customers cared more about her product’s personal health benefits than its equally strong environmental impact. So the “power of choice” concept made a sort of obvious strategic sense, It tested strongly and was visually expressed in a way that Rachel’s team team loved. But deep down, Rachel embraced the story we were creating, because it was a declaration of her own power to take control of her destiny and not simply let circumstance decide her fate. Entrepreneurs who just let fate take its course will, at some point, inevitably fail.

As 2016 comes to a close, and Rachel’s new story penetrates the market, she looks back on this rock bottom moment with the attitude someone who has suffered and grown. She says that as an entrepreneur, pain is an inevitable part of the journey. Sometimes, you just have to act in the face of it. As she looks at 7x year-over-year sales figures, Rachel knows she’s made it past the pain — at least for now.

Written by Jonah Sachs, Founder and Partner at Free Range. Jonah is an internationally recognized storyteller, author and entrepreneur. His book,“Winning the Story Wars” shows how values-driven stories are not only revolutionizing marketing, but represent humanity’s greatest hope for the future.

At Free Range, we love this stuff. And we love working on it with brilliant partners. So chime in with questions, comments, and other ideas, because the only way we’re going to make this happen is when we do it together.