I’m Building My Business With More Intention + More  Depth. Here’s How 

The Value of Human Connection In Building A Business With More Depth. 

The change was definitely not about stifling growth or lessening a desire to scale.

It was all about depth. More meaning. More human connections through experiences that linked founders to each others.

It’s now been twelve years since I closed the doors on my seven-figure PR agency and started a digital business.

Thirty-five full-time employees became 4.

Face-to-face became remote.

Systems and automations became the glue behind the growth.

And in that mix was me.

I became the business owner who was obsessed with making the tiny, huge.

I think this is the part of my life I was most surprised by.

When I understood the leverage of scaling — earning more without resources increasing at the same rate — it became the altar of my ambition.

The preoccupation of my work became asking how I could earn more through the systemisation of my business.

Which markets were the most profitable? Which countries and cities would my ads convert best?

What was the optimisation strategy?

There was one aim and I intended to become busier, bigger, more booked.

I am not saying any of that was bad.

Scaling vs Depth

Scaling is, in part, about making more money in exchange for adding value while using fewer resources and creating more leverage.

More passivity too, sort of.

What I didn’t factor in was that scale would not give me the depth I was beginning to need.

Sure, growth became proof of momentum and eventual success.

A strong launch meant I was doing well.

But I wasn’t sure I was okay with my business starting to tell me who I was — whether I was successful or not.

Of course I wasn’t about to give up scale.

I created a digital business because the internet gave me leverage.

I still believe in that leverage. AI, automation and systems give it even more power.

None of that disappears.

So the next step was to decide where in my business depth could exist side by side with it.

That’s where IRL came in. I began looking at interactive experiences.

Yeah, where else but online?!

It was there I learned that my challenge was not just personal.

A survey I came across one evening while scrolling found that, in a study of 2,225 female founders, 78% saw human connection as central to their entrepreneurial journey.

People were craving more humans in the room.

Experiences that were IRL coded.

Food. Vinyl. Conversation. Opportunities and connections.

Face-to-face encounters that required time and attention.

That idea became my jam.

What Does Depth In Business Actually Look Like?

I’d be foolish to suggest that depth looks the same in every small business. It can’t.

Take ten different businesses and they’d have ten different stories, makeups, successes, failures, reasons for existence and reasons for growth.

For me, human connection was the starting point. But getting people into a room wasn’t enough. The depth came from what happened once we were there.

Part of my decision to add depth was having to rework a muscle I built in myself: the instinct to take an amazing discovery that opened up a pathway for my online business and convert it  into something to be shared in a downloadable PDF.

Some things, I’ve discovered, can be experiences, not products.

So when I sat at the head of the table and saw the women without their phones, enjoying each other’s company, finding what was in front of them and beside them more interesting than a recorded moment for IG, I knew I had found what I was searching for.

I wanted founders gathered in my bungalow-turned-community-space.

 I wanted us to discuss business and talk about what we were building

But then I also wanted us to break bread over little and grand things that had nothing to do with profit and loss.

Depth could stand alone.

In all the twelve years of scaling, I had not understood yet that depth itself could be the thing.

Not the prelude to the thing. Not the atermath from the thing.

It was the antidote to being consumed by the business of making money.

It was work that could leave me physically tired without leaving me depleted.

It was a means of connecting to a room full of humans and their stories, and making sure they connected with each other.

Something I had lost in my drive to scale.

Where Can You Add More Depth To Your Business?

The language of the internet is a hurried one.

Everyone wants us to scale. The tech bros tell us how. The business owner gives us five ways to win the game in 30 days.

Success is as loud as it is accessible.

But I know small business ownership is lonesome. It is also puzzling, especially for founders being pulled in different directions by an algorithm that can make them feel less than.

As founders doing the most, I think the idea of depth has to begin with a question:

Where do I feel a lack?

It is always tempting to say money.

We could all do with more.

But depth has little, if anything at all, to do with money.

It is a more emotional path. One that has you asking yourself questions about your life and your business before you begin colouring between the lines.

Some that were useful for me were:

What is draining me?

What feels missing from the way I currently work?

What part of my business no longer feels satisfying, even if it is still profitable and functioning well?

Is there any part of what is missing that could reasonably become part of how I build or experience my business?

What would make the way I work feel richer, and what could I change in the business to support that?

Not everything missing in your life belongs inside your business. But some things might.

I got clarity in my answers.

I wanted entrepreneurship to feel less lonesome for me and for others. I wanted my personal space to feel more full of life while welcoming fellow founders into innovative learning experiences.

There was an intersection where those things could meet.

I renovated my space to welcome people in, and I created an experience where connections could be felt and expanded beyond the room.

But recognising what is missing is not the same as making room for it.

At some point, depth has to become a decision.

For me, that decision meant changing a physical space, creating experiences, bringing people together and building differently.

Your depth may not come from more people.

It may come from collaborating with someone in your field, doing community service, philanthropy, mentoring, physical experiences, conversations, craftsmanship, perhaps even changing how your products are developed by aligning yourself with new producers.

And sometimes depth may come from adding less, not more.

Fewer clients. Fewer launches. Fewer things competing for your attention. More room to do the parts of the work that still matter to you.

Whatever it is, you are looking for meaning and asking how to build your business with more intention.

Maybe a useful synonym for depth is alignment.

I’m still exploring it, but what I do know for sure is this:

We are the ones behind every single choice we make, both as humans and as founders.

It is one of the most hopeful things because of the agency it provides us.

If we are the ones creating something, we are the ones who can create something else.

The same fingers that type a to-do list can press delete. 

The same person who learned how to scale can learn how to add depth and meaning.

We should never feel  stuck inside the businesses we have made. 

We are living our lives while we are reconfiguring  the pieces that feel as if they belong , and changes are happening whether we are paying attention to it or not.

Depth deserves our attention.

(for more images from the mastermind and supper club, Friday Evening Lime With A Twist view HERE  

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