Chris Nelson

I am a builder and a teacher. I build businesses, teams, brands, operational systems, processes, strategies, people and I love working with my hands. In my personal life cars, family, movies, travel, and my home dominate my time, and in business I am obsessed with pushing and building to the next level. My background is in e-commerce, marketing, product development, sales, customer service, and operations and the thing that really gets me going is the GAME of business success.

Everyone wants to be an entrepreneur, start a business, be their own boss, scale a company to the point where the thing you created pays your employee's mortgage and puts food on their table, but that is easier said than done. The same principles that a successful business owner needs to follow at the startup phase flow into business at a larger scale as well. In my experience the foundations at the bottom are the same at the top: have a great product, bend over backwards for your customer, try things you can measure so you know if they're working, do things your customers want that your competitor isn't willing to do, hire the right person for every task your company needs to be successful, create automated and scalable systems and processes, and equip your team with what they need to be successful.

As a leader I believe everything in a company is my fault until I've equipped my team for success. In order for accountability to transfer from me to my employee, I need to do these 3 things:

1. Set clear expectations: You can't judge someone on their failures if you never told them what you want them to do.
2. Make sure they have the skills and knowledge required: If you hire someone who doesn't know how to do the job, it's your fault that they can't do the job.
3. Provide the tools required: This may be a budget, empowerment, authority, or simply a camera, computer, phone and forklift - but the leader needs to be the provider.

My experience ranges from corporate executive-level leadership and strategy, to business startups, brand development, team development, e-commerce, AI implementation, tool / system creation, sales and wholesale, and private equity mergers and acquisitions. I love cars and business and would enjoy talking about any of these things in a way that is fun or would help someone learn how to navigate the next opportunity or challenge.