How I Built 5 Multi-Million Dollar Companies: Marcia Kilgore

Sep 27, 2021 1h 22m 25 insights
Marcia Kilgore, a serial entrepreneur, shares insights from building five successful companies like Bliss, Soap and Glory, and Beauty Pie. The conversation explores her unique approach to customer experience, resilience, and identifying high-value ideas.
Actionable Insights

1. Choose Yourself, Don’t Wait

Don’t wait for others to validate or choose you; decide you are worthy and capable, then take action to put yourself out there and make things happen.

2. Apply The Deathbed Test

Make decisions by considering what you will regret on your deathbed, prioritizing important life events and relationships over transient achievements like conversion rates.

3. Uncompromising Standards Drive Success

Maintain extremely high standards for every detail of your product or service, from the smallest elements to the overall experience, as this compounds over time to create exceptional quality and loyalty.

4. Connect Disparate Dots for Ideas

Become an expert in one area while maintaining broad curiosity across many others; scan diverse information to find new connections that can spark innovative and valuable ideas.

5. Brutally Edit Your Own Ideas

Don’t fall in love with your own ideas; apply a ‘so what test’ to determine if anyone else would care, and be willing to cut out concepts that lack genuine resonance or value.

6. Let Ideas Bubble to Surface

Jot down all your ideas, but only pursue the ones that consistently resurface and demand your attention, as these are likely the most compelling and worthwhile.

7. Failure as Your Best Mentor

Embrace failure as a critical learning tool; internalize feedback from mistakes and use that direct experience to avoid repeating them, as it’s more impactful than being told you might fail.

8. Prioritize Customer Focus

Always make the experience about the customer, not yourself; be absolutely focused on their needs, listen intently, and ensure they feel heard and attended to.

9. Deliver Exceptional Service Consistently

Go above and beyond in service to ensure customers return, striving to provide an experience so superior that no one else tries as hard or delivers as consistently.

10. Show Gratitude to Customers

Actively demonstrate gratitude to customers through actions like apologizing for delays or sending thank-you notes, reinforcing that you value their business and trust.

11. Be Pleasant and Likable

Cultivate a pleasant demeanor in all interactions, as people choose who they engage with, and being likable can open doors and foster better relationships with team members, clients, and the public.

12. Build Trust Through Objectivity

Be willing to tell clients or customers when your own product or service might not be the best fit or could be a waste of their money; this honesty builds trust and makes them more receptive to your genuine recommendations.

13. Roll Up Sleeves, Learn Skills

Continuously learn as many practical skills as possible by doing, rather than just studying; this hands-on experience builds confidence and allows you to take on more responsibilities.

14. Don’t Get Stuck in Identity

Avoid having your identity completely wrapped up in your current job or career; cultivate a mindset of being a lifelong learner, ready to morph and pivot as industries and roles change.

15. Find Passion in Improving Lives

Seek out work that genuinely improves people’s existence or brings them joy; this intrinsic passion will sustain you through difficult times and provide a fulfilling reason to show up every day.

16. Sell What You Would Buy

Only create or sell products and services that you genuinely love, believe in, and would personally buy; this authenticity makes selling easier and more effective.

17. Learn Operations by Doing

Gain business experience by simply starting and doing, rather than waiting for formal education; observe patterns of what goes wrong and what works to build practical operational knowledge.

18. Recognize Patterns in People

Develop an ability to recognize patterns in people’s behavior and business outcomes; this experience-based intelligence helps predict results, reduces panic, and improves decision-making.

19. Embrace Employee Turnover

Don’t panic when employees leave; understand that it’s an unavoidable part of an ecosystem, and new hires often bring fresh, additive value to the team, leading to more overall happiness.

20. Improve Mediocre Experiences

Actively seek to improve any mediocre experience you encounter, whether in a job or daily life; this proactive mindset can lead to innovative solutions and new opportunities.

21. Profound Experiences Reshape Perspective

Allow profound life experiences, especially early losses, to help you grow up fast, understand what’s truly important, and prioritize your life decisions with a broader perspective.

22. Build Mental Frameworks for New

When introducing radical or disruptive ideas, relate them to existing, familiar concepts; this helps people build mental frameworks and understand the new idea more easily through comparison.

23. Listen to Customer Needs

Pay close attention to what your customers are asking for, as they will often tell you exactly what they want, guiding your product development and service offerings.

24. Analyze Feedback Non-Defensively

Look at all feedback, positive or negative, without defensiveness; use it as an objective tool to understand what works and continuously improve your actions and offerings.

25. Treat Life as an A-B Test

Approach life and business as a continuous A-B test; observe what works well and do more of that, while identifying what doesn’t and doing less of it.