4 Essential Lessons on Business Relationships from Relentless by Natasha Miller
Can you imagine growing up in a home with a mother who regularly told she hated you and wanted to kill you, experiencing homeless at 16 because it wasn’t safe to live in your own house? And then having the will and relentless drive to to become a serial entrepreneur, creating businesses that celebrate the arts and help performers succeed in their work.
Natasha Miller, CEO and Founder of Entire Productions, did just this. She weathered storms many of us could never imagine and found a way to come out on top. In her book Relentless, she shares the story of her childhood, how music gave her strength and inspiration, and how her passion for performing lead her to build the event company she leads today.
What struck me most in this book is how Natasha overcame deeply dysfunctional family relationships to build exceptional relationships in her adult life. In Relentless, she shares wonderful insights about how to build healthy connections with your employees, collaborators, business partners, and clients.
4 Essential Lessons on Business Relationships
1. Own Your Mistakes
When you or someone on your team has made a mistake, it may be tempting to try and cover it up, make excuses, or deflect to someone else. Owning mistakes can be difficult, but it’s essential for building trust and long-term relationships with clients and business partners. If something goes wrong, acknowledge it and then work quickly to solve the problem.
Being willing to acknowledge mistakes is so important that you should discuss your expectations about owning errors with potential hires, collaborators, and business partners before agreeing to work with them. If they aren’t on the same page, find someone else to work with.
2. Trust your team
When you launch your business on your own, you become accustomed to doing it all. When you hire your first employee(s), it can very difficult to let go of that control. But if you fail to put your trust in your employees, you are limiting how much your business can grow. You are only one person, and no matter how remarkable you are, there is a limit to what you can do.
Hire carefully and train well, but once you bring someone on to the team, respect their abilities, listen to their ideas, and allow them to help move the company forward. If you are unwilling to do this, then what was the point of hiring a team in the first place.
3. Stop expecting perfection
You aren’t perfect and neither is anyone else. Aiming for perfection is a waste of time and expecting perfection from others will destroy relationships. Accepting imperfection isn’t just about acknowledging that we all mistakes. It’s about recognizing that striving for perfection is a waste of time and will hold you back from growing your business. If you or your team wait for perfection before executing on something—whether it be a new product, marketing asset, or partner contract—you will never move forward.
When you don’t know how to do something, do your research, ask your mentor, or hire an expert. But accept that there will always be some lingering uncertainty. Embrace that uncertainty, put your new idea out in the world, and learn from the results.
4. Establish core values
Core values may seem like a nice-to-have in running your business, but they are the foundation of your relationships with your team, clients, and business partners. You shouldn’t overlook their importance in building long-term, successful relationships. Your core values should reflect both how you and your team work together, and how you and your team will treat clients, partners, and your community/the world at large.
Use your core values as discussion points in interviews as you’re hiring. Discuss them with business partners before your make any commitments to collaborate. And post your core values on your website, so potential customers will know who you are and what your business stands for.
Small Business Book Review: Relentless
I read Relentless in two days and was very caught up in the story. It’s the definition of inspirational. However, if you’re looking for a book about how to build a business, it is about 20% a business book, and 80% a personal memoir.
The business information, especially about relationship building, is very useful. But the key value of this book is to remind you that you can overcome anything. Even when things are brutally hard, stories like Miller’s remind you it is possible to persevere and succeed. I give Relentless a 4 out of 5 stars for small business owners. Pick up a copy of this book, especially if you are coping with personal difficulties and need inspiration to keep going to reach your dreams.
