On the mind.

Here we go, another round of answering questions! Feel free to reply back to this newsletter if you have any questions or comments.

What I do differently as CEO compared to others on our team is set the vision and keep everyone on the path. I’m a jack of all trades by skill, but what I do best is chart the course and make sure we stay on it, even when things get messy, by pulling our team back together. My role (honestly, it feels weird even calling it a role because it’s really just who I am) is to hold the long view and keep the team inspired and aligned as we grow. From there, I let our leadership team handle the day-to-day with little to no micromanagement so they own the work they do.

While there are many, two things come to mind. One is my advice to anybody thinking about starting a business and that scaling becomes all about people. The second is also related to people and that you must learn to set your emotions aside.

Lesson 1:

First, being an “entrepreneur” has this cool factor these days and a lot of people try to be something they’re not. The truth is, it’s incredibly stressful. There are constant highs and lows. It’s not for everyone and knowing yourself is so important to living a fulfilled life.

When you scale, it’s no longer about the product or service you initially built and for most entrepreneurs, that early creation phase is where they thrive. But once you scale, it becomes all about people management. A lot of founders burn out when they grow into managing large teams.

For me though, I truly enjoy the stage we are at and scaling people. If I had to choose one word that describes my why, it’s CREATE. I love building things from nothing. My first draw to tech was writing code, pushing it to a server, pointing a domain, and seeing something I made go live for the world to see.

These days, that passion has evolved from creating websites to creating and nurturing a culture of like-minded people, and building a profitable, sustainable business around it.

Lesson 2:

One lesson I’ve learned over the years is to “lock up my heart in a box and set it aside” when it comes to business and people management. In the early days, I’d get emotionally really upset when we had to fire someone, or when people left, or when someone acted in ways that completely surprised me. It bothered me deeply.

But over time, I’ve learned I have to step back emotionally because it’s not healthy to carry that weight, especially knowing it’ll happen again. On the journey of building White Rabbit Group, I’ve been blindsided by the lack of integrity, even by my closest teammates. People who no longer work here.

So my takeaway: even those you trust most can surprise you. Be prepared for it—and do your best to lead without letting it shake you. The rest of your team depends on it. This lesson also makes me appreciate (and not take for granted) even more the people on my team who I can trust, who are genuine, and who truly lead with integrity.

This is a hard one to describe and I’m going to try and keep it simple. Our culture has been important to us from day one. We’ve focused on creating an environment where like-minded people enjoy the work we do and the time they spend together.

I’m not sure it would work at 500 people, but it’s still working at our current size. I think we’ve made it work by simply defining our culture and hiring in alignment with it. It’s not perfect, but the one thing we’ve always done is care.

It’s that simple. As a leadership team, we care about the people we work with. We always have, and we always will.

If I couldn’t fail, I’d genuinely stay on the path I’m already on. Building with my current team, full steam ahead toward a big win for all of us. Then personally, I’d keep going down the road of creating a legacy for my family.

All the decisions I make involve risk, but they’re calculated. I tend to lean on the safer side so we don’t risk everything. But if I truly couldn’t fail, I’d be less conservative with my decisions and take even bigger swings.

Weekly moments.

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Thanks for following along!

The Weekly is a newsletter that goes out each week written by Greg Bellinger, currently building and CEO of White Rabbit Group and The Labs.

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