Growing a business means seizing the right opportunities, building a team and making decisions, often without having all the answers.
But as a business grows, one question becomes increasingly important: how do you continue to grow while staying true to what inspired you to start in the first place?
As a guest on the Meilleur Humain, Meilleur Monde podcast, produced by Diversico Finance humaine, Amélie Brassard, President and Founder of AB Marketing, spoke openly about her entrepreneurial journey. From launching the firm in 2018 to growing her team, she shared the challenges and insights that have shaped the way she leads.
Here are four takeaways from the conversation:
1. Strong expertise comes from listening
When Amélie founded AB Marketing, her first client hired her for a partnership and sponsorship mandate. She discovered a field that brought together several of her strengths: business development, relationship building and value creation.
Other professional associations and organizations soon approached her with similar needs. With each new mandate, AB Marketing developed a deeper understanding of client realities, challenges and objectives.
This is often how distinctive expertise develops: by recognizing recurring needs, refining your approach and achieving tangible results.
The key takeaway: Your positioning doesn’t always come from a theoretical exercise. It can also come from hands-on experience, by listening to your clients and understanding the problems you actually help them solve.
2. Lasting relationships are more valuable than quick wins
AB Marketing’s first client has been with the firm since the beginning.
That loyalty reflects a belief that continues to guide our work today: a strong business relationship is about more than completing a mandate. It’s built through listening, trust, consistency and the ability to evolve with a client’s needs.
The same principle applies to partnerships. The most valuable collaborations create real value for every organization involved and have the potential to continue growing over time.
The key takeaway: Building a relationship with the potential to grow is often more valuable than focusing solely on a one-time opportunity.
3. Growing a team also means learning to let go
Moving from solo entrepreneur to team manager is a major step. Responsibilities change and so do the challenges.
For Amélie, developing and launching new projects has always come naturally. Delegating, accepting that things can be done differently and recognizing that she doesn’t need to be involved in every tiny detail required a different kind of learning.
Over time, she realized that a business becomes stronger when responsibility doesn’t rest on one person alone. Surrounding yourself with the right people allows everyone to contribute their strengths and gives the organization the space it needs to move forward.
“I know I’m not indispensable, but that allows me to give absolutely everything I have when I’m at work.”
The key takeaway: Delegating doesn’t mean disengaging. It means creating the conditions for both the team and the business to grow together.
4. When advice comes from every direction, return to your why
Throughout an entrepreneurial journey, advice comes from everywhere: mentors, colleagues, partners, team members and other entrepreneurs.
These perspectives can be valuable. But when there are too many voices, they can make it harder to see the right path forward.
Amélie decided to take some time to reconnect with the reason she became an entrepreneur in the first place: the freedom to make decisions, organize her time and build a business that reflects who she is.
Returning to what mattered most helped her regain a clearer sense of direction and make choices that were better aligned with her vision.
The key takeaway: Advice can help inform a decision, but it cannot replace your own compass. Before choosing a direction, you need to understand what you truly want to build.
Growing one decision at a time
Amélie’s journey reminds us that growth isn’t measured only by the number of clients, the size of a team or the revenue a business generates.
It’s also reflected in the quality of the relationships we build, our ability to surround ourselves with the right people and the decisions we make to stay on course.
This vision is at the heart of AB Marketing: understanding the reality of each organization, building lasting relationships and turning objectives into concrete action.
One step, one decision and one collaboration at a time. From point A to point B.
Listen to the full episode
Amélie discusses her transition to entrepreneurship, leadership, balance and the lessons that continue to shape the way she leads.
0 Comments