Level 5
Our leadership team celebrating LEVEL 5!
Our leadership team had our quarterly review last week, and together, we got to wrap up and celebrate the best quarter we’ve ever had. That’s right: Q3 2020 was the most successful quarter in our team’s history. Despite the pandemic. Despite the fallout from being closed for two months in Q2. Despite having to change everything about the way we do business to stay afloat. Remember that bonus structure I told you about? We didn’t just hit Level 5…we surpassed it.
As I write this, only the leadership team knows our special news. But by the time this blog hits your inbox, the rest of our team will know, so I can spill the beans: Our success this quarter has allowed us to surprise our team members with an immediate $2/hour wage increase and a brand-new, company-wide bonus structure.
I have tears in my eyes as I write this. $2/hour might not seem like much, but to us, it’s monumental. We’re a small cleaning company with small margins that, until now, has only been able to afford paying our cleaning team members slightly above minimum wage. We’ve always used whatever profit we made to reinvest in our people and offer them leadership development opportunities. Though we’ve desperately wanted to raise our wages for years, we’ve never been in a financial position to do so significantly—but now we can. I can’t express to you how good that feels.
In addition, our success has made our original 2020 goal of paying off debt a reality again. If you’ve been following along for a while, you might remember when I wrote about our ambitious plan to be debt-free. When the pandemic hit, we thought that goal was long-gone. But in Q3, we were able to stay on track with our debt progress, and if all continues to go like we think it will, we will end the year able to pay off our business loans five years early. Doing so will allow us to continue increasing compensation and to take even better care of our people.
I’ll be honest: It feels weird to write about our success. I know so many teams are struggling right now. Organizations are laying people off right and left. Small businesses are closing every day. It almost feels wrong to celebrate. But at the same time, there’s no doubt in my mind that our team deserves to have our moment. We worked so freaking hard to get here.
Underneath our success this quarter, you will find 13 years of failures. The poor financial choices. The debt that we didn’t need but took on anyway. The inability to execute and reach goals. The lack of focus on results. The lack of accountability. The meetings where we’d announce that we fell short of the goal…again. The times when our culture was toxic and our trust was hardly there. The times when our relationships suffered. The coaches who gave us painful reality checks. It was all of those moments when we fell down—hard—that collectively got us to Q3 2020. The only reason I feel okay writing about our success right now is because I know we earned it. We worked hard for this. We endured pain for this. We found our way. We deserve to be here.
I also want to thank you for your support. It’s been a while since I’ve said that, so I want to make sure you know how much you mean to us. We wouldn’t be here without you, truly. Those of you who have purchased our resources, who have bought the book, who have invited me to speak, who have hired Student Maid, who have joined our coaching and mastermind groups, who have joined our weekly LIVEs, who have attended our retreats, who follow along on social media, who have read our blogs (a.k.a. you!)…you have believed in us, which has helped us believe in us. Your support of our work and your cheering us on—even when we fail (especially when we fail)—has helped more than you could ever know. On the days when we have felt lost, you have been our joy. On the days when we have questioned if it’s all worth it, you remind us that what we do matters. On the days when we screw it up, you remind us that the more we learn, the more we can help other leaders and organizations through our story.
Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts.
Q3 2020 was one for the books. Let’s see what you got, Q4!
Hugs through the screen,
Kristen
PS: Have you heard about my new LIVE show on Wednesdays at 11 a.m. ET on Zoom? Think of it as real talk. I share all of the challenges I’m navigating as a leader and I also take questions from you! You can register here: https://bit.ly/3kWe2kT. It’s the same link each week. I won’t be having one this week (10/7), so my next LIVE will be on 10/14! Hope to see you there!
