{HBR 40} Love Is All You Need with Amanda Farough

Holistic Business Radio – The Podcast of the Love and Money Revolution – with Andy Dolph and Rhiannon Llewellyn

Rhi and Amanda talk shop about the business of making beautiful, meaningful things on the internet, and delve into the new paradigm that Amanda is bringing into being with her Digital Artisan Collective. Scroll down for show notes. We love your feedback! Please let us know what you think – email us at [e-mail], or leave us a comment below. If you’re not subscribed, please join us! How to subscribe: Most people subscribe to podcasts in iTunes; click the button to view the podcast in iTunes. Show notes from this episode with Amanda Farough: In this episode, Rhiannon talks with Amanda Farough of violetminded Media. Amanda is in the process of re-opening her doors as a new web agency. She is doing something different and revolutionary: bringing together extremely talented and brilliant people in what she calls a digital artisan collective. Rhi asks Amanda to share a little about how she came to this place and what challenges she faced. Amanda was a solo operation at first. She realized, however, that she was burning herself out by doing everything herself. Burn-out does not go well with her desire to be of service to others. So she decided to look at competition in a whole new light. She posted an article years ago called Collaboration Trumps Competition. She believes that if you want to do well and want your people to get the best possible experience, you should work with or hire people who are especially smart. That was the strategy she used when she started violetminded. She gathered all these ridiculously smart people to work with to create the best possible website and best possible experience for her people. Rhi goes through the potentially overwhelming thought process that can go into starting a new business or project and asks Amanda how she dealt with those challenges. Amanda says the trick is feeling comfortable enough to figure out how to be a leader and not just a boss. A boss directs everybody around and puts the responsibility on everybody else’s shoulders. A leader leads the pack and shows the way; it’s a team effort. Trust is essential. It’s a mutual investment. Rhi also points out that Amanda works with people who already have their own businesses. Amanda says that it’s the opposite of the scarcity principle. It’s a more expansive way to do business. It’s a prerequisite for anyone Amanda’s considering adding to her team: they need to have their own things going. When businesses get too big too fast, owners bring in people to help; then they find the business ebbs and flows, and during the ebbs their helpers don’t have anything to do. That flow is just to be expected, like the tide or seasons. Having to be a team member’s sole means of income can create a huge sense of responsibility for the business owner. When Amanda considers her team, she doesn’t see it as people working for her; she works alongside them, with them. She’s the leader, not the boss. When there’s mutual investment among the team, including the client, really great things are created. Rhi says the most fulfilling thing one can do in life is something that is deeply moving and makes money to sustain a lifestyle. But that doesn’t mean that you have to pull out everything you like to do and do those things for everyone else. It loses its “specialness” at that point. Rhi compares it to her love of playing the piano. She loves to play, but only for herself not in front of others. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to keep a little piece of you to yourself. That’s a part of loving yourself, doing something special for yourself. Moving the conversation along, Amanda points out the fear everybody has around design. She thinks it’s because people either have no experience with it or have had a horrible experience with it. She helps people feel comfortable by making sure everyone’s educated about how the process works and removing the mystery. Other designers leave so much to the imagination that it...