I grew Life Alive from a single cafe up a side street in Lowell into three locations, more than 125 team members and over 2,000 guests a day. Later, I founded The Hearth Food Garden, a European-style food market in downtown Portsmouth. Along the way I learned, sometimes the hard way, what makes a business thrive and what quietly wears down both the business and its leader. Since then, I've watched the same lessons play out again and again with the founders and leaders I work with. I shared part of this journey on the Positive Enterprise Value Podcast (full episode linked below). Here are the eight lessons I'd want every leader to take from it.
1. Put your attention where you can reach the root.
Most leaders spend their days reacting to symptoms: the complaint, the missed number, the team member who isn't performing. Real progress comes from asking what sits underneath those symptoms, and whether it's something you can actually affect. Early in my career, I tried to change huge systems head-on and found I had little influence there. What I could shape was right in front of me: the space, the culture and the daily experience of my guests and team members.
You can't force anyone to change, but you can build an environment that makes the change you want feel natural. At Life Alive, we never lectured anyone about eating well. We created a space where guests felt nourished and energized, and new habits followed. With Hearth, the root I saw was that our community had few places where anyone could gather and eat well at any time of day. So I designed it to be visited four or five times a day: an espresso at the bar, a stop to fill the fridge for the week, or a long meal by the fire. Before you pour energy into a problem, ask two questions. Is this the root or a symptom? Is it within my influence? Then look at what your space, systems and daily rhythms invite your team members and customers to do. That's where lasting change begins.
2. A clear identity will push some customers away. Let it.
When something stands for a point of view, not everyone will like it, and that's a sign it's working. Trying to appeal to everyone waters down the very thing that makes you worth choosing. Many of the guests who walked out of Life Alive in the early days came back later, brought in by a friend who loved it. I see clients struggle with this all the time, softening their message until no one remembers it. Be clear about who you are and who you serve, and trust that the right customers will find you.
3. Culture is the product.
Customers think they're buying a meal, a service or a product. What brings them back is how it feels to deal with you, and that comes from your culture. That's why training has to cover more than tasks and scripts. At Life Alive, our training covered energy management and helped each team member see how their personal goals connected to our mission. Team members who left for college or other careers often came back to work part-time, because they had never been anywhere else that saw them as a whole person. Culture is often the first thing cut when money is tight, and it should be the last.
4. Lead with questions, not answers.
If you answer every question your team brings you, they will keep bringing them to you. Asking good questions while holding the mission steady builds team members who think like owners. The ideas they come up with often go further than anything you could have planned alone. It takes patience and the right team members, but it is how you stop carrying everything yourself.
5. Growth has to keep the soul intact.
Getting bigger is easy to measure. Staying yourself while you grow is harder, and it's the part that counts. Our test at Life Alive was whether we could serve far more guests with the same care and spirit as that first small cafe. With Hearth, I chose not to plan for scale at all. I wanted it to stay adaptable, so it could keep evolving with the community. Before you expand, decide what must never be lost, and build your systems to protect it.
6. Know what's yours to lead, and hand off the rest.
No founder is great at everything, and pretending otherwise wears you and the business down. When I noticed I was spending whole days in meetings on things that didn't energize me, it was a signal. Others could do that work far better than I could. Be honest about where you add the most value. Hand off or get support for the rest, whether that's a hire, a partner, an advisor or, sometimes, a sale.
7. Protect your energy as if the business depends on it, because it does.
When I looked back honestly at my time with Life Alive, my biggest lesson was that I hadn't taken care of myself. When pressure peaked, the practices that kept me grounded were the first things to go, and that was exactly when I needed them most. When I built Hearth, a mentor gave me advice I've never forgotten: make your time to recharge company policy. My two hours in the woods each afternoon stopped being a private indulgence and became part of how we operated. When a leader models balance, it gives every team member permission to keep it too.
8. Name your kryptonite.
Every leader has a pattern that drains them, and it's usually a strength pushed too far. Mine is perfectionism. I can sit down to work at nine in the morning and look up at seven at night. With clients, it might be worry, avoiding conflict, saying yes to everything or needing to control the details. You can't manage a pattern you won't name. Once it's named, you can build guardrails around it before it costs you.
Putting it together
Each of these lessons supports the others. Focusing on the root keeps your energy on what moves the business. A clear identity attracts the right customers and team members, and a strong culture keeps them. Leading with questions builds a team that can carry the vision alongside you. Growing with soul protects what makes you worth choosing. Knowing your role, protecting your energy and naming your kryptonite keep you healthy enough to lead. When they work together, you get success that lasts and that you actually enjoy.
Knowing all this isn't the hard part. Practicing it in the middle of a demanding season is. Every pressure pulls you back into old habits. That's where I come in. I work alongside leaders to name their kryptonite honestly, protect their energy, keep the mission at the center of decisions, and notice drift before it turns into burnout or a culture problem. Think of it as a steady outside partner who keeps you on track when the day-to-day pulls you off course.
If you'd like to see where you stand, start with the free Rooted Check-up. Or book a free 15-minute call and we'll talk about what's pulling you off balance.
Listen to the full conversation on Apple Podcasts.