I'm proud to announce that my TEDx Talk is live! Recorded in Billings, MT on October 7, 2023.

Stop The Scale: Redefining Business Success - TEDx Billings

After a year of hard work, practice, training, editing and re-editing, rehearsing (I prob went over it 60-80 times), I'm happy to finally release my TEDx Billings Talk on redefining business success.

In this talk, I ask why we treat financial growth as the key marker of success in our culture, and suggest 3 things that should instead be used to define actual business success for those starting and running businesses of any size (and I'm especially excited to honor my grandpa and grandma in my ending!).

Those three traits to redefining business success are:

(1) Are you achieving the purpose for which your business exists? 

This is a simple, but important point. Your business can't be successful if you're not accomplishing your business purpose. At ZATO, our purpose is to manage Google Ads exceptionally well for our clients. That's one of the reasons we stick to Google Ads, so that we can go super deep, and implement tactics at the highest level because we actually know it well and have happy clients. If we're doing that, I think we're successful (even though we're small).

(2) Are you a building a sustainable business? 

Money isn't everything, but it's also not nothing! (to use a double negative there... my speaking coach made me take that double negative out of the talk since it's harder to come across when not written, haha!). But seriously, you can't be so focused on achieving your purpose that you're actually running an unprofitable business. In this sense, money is simply a tool to accomplish other things, but it still is an important tool. I also discuss other ways a business can fail and be unsustainable (not just with money). Gotta listen to the talk!

(3) Are you, and those within your sphere of influence, free to pursue personal wellness?

This is perhaps my most important point, but also the one most likely to get eyeballs rolling around in response. But think about it, if you spend decades making a lot of money while sacrificing everything dear to you, even your health, have you really ""won"" at the game of life? I think "success" is so much more than simply money, and personal health, mental health, and solid relationships are signs of a truly successful person. Check out the talk for more details!

‍

I think those are marks that you're building a successful business, and it is how I seek to build my agency as we pursue deep Google Ads skill, as well as overall wellness of ZATO employees (and my own wellness too :) ).

I hope that, even if you don't agree with all of it, that it makes you think! What a fun journey, but I'm glad it's over haha.

Now, would you do me a favor? If this resonates with, or challenges you, would you consider sharing it? Thanks, and if you've ever wanted to speak at TEDx, I'd highly suggest you do. It was a blast!

‍

Watch Kirk Williams' TEDx Talk here: