158. You Can’t Do It All Forever: The Changes That Come With Growth in Your Business ft. Ashley Cruz

Holly Silva
5 days ago
4 min read

Growth is the goal … right?

We start businesses dreaming about more clients, more revenue, a bigger team, more opportunities, and eventually a business that doesn’t require us to personally do every single freaking thing.

But then the growth actually starts happening. And suddenly, you’re hiring people. You’re managing personalities. You’re responsible for a team. You’re learning how to lead. You’re trying to delegate things you’ve done yourself for years. And somewhere in the middle of all of it, you realize that growing the business also requires you to grow into an entirely different version of yourself.

That’s exactly what we’re talking about in this episode of Hustled Up with Ashley Cruz, owner of Celestial Shine Cleaning in Pennsylvania.

Ashley joined us for a candid conversation about the changes that come with growth — the exciting ones, the uncomfortable ones, and the ones nobody really prepares you for.

And if you’re currently somewhere in that weird middle stage of “Holy crap, my business is actually growing” and “Holy crap, I have no idea what I’m doing anymore,” this one is for you. 😂

🎧 Listen to the Episode

Ready to join the conversation? Listen to Episode 158 of Hustled Up:

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0JnShcGBaAaBCsFgovS4Fj?si=pOn4GLF_SdCAmP_WfJWTNw

🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/158-you-cant-do-it-all-forever-the-changes-that-come/id1619723852?i=1000784111524

▶️ YouTube: https://youtu.be/t0MxKe_Ka2c?si=q-6pQM5ql1z_opHH

https://youtu.be/t0MxKe_Ka2c?si=q-6pQM5ql1z_opHH

Growth Is Amazing … and Also Really Uncomfortable

There’s a side of entrepreneurship that gets talked about constantly: how to grow.

How do you get more clients? How do you increase your revenue? How do you hire your first employee? How do you scale? But we don’t talk nearly enough about what happens after those things start working.

Because growth changes things. The role you had when you started your company probably isn’t the role your business needs you to have forever. The systems that worked with five clients may not work with fifty. The way you communicated with one employee probably won’t work when you have ten. And eventually, the entrepreneur who could keep everything tucked safely inside her own brain has to start letting other people in.

That transition can be so damn hard.

You Can’t Hold Onto Everything Forever

One of the biggest themes of our conversation with Ashley was something we think almost every entrepreneur eventually has to confront: letting go.

Your business is your baby. You built the processes. You know your customers. You know exactly how you like things done. So naturally, when someone tells you to delegate, your brain goes "buuuut nobody is going to do it the way I do it."

And you know what? They probably won’t. But that doesn’t automatically mean they’re going to do it wrong.

Growth eventually forces us to ask ourselves some uncomfortable questions:

What am I still doing simply because I’ve always done it?
What tasks actually require me — and which ones could be taught to someone else?
Am I holding onto something because I’m the best person for it, or because giving up control makes me uncomfortable?
Am I creating space for my team to grow, or am I constantly stepping back in?
What does my business need from me at this stage that it didn’t need a year ago?

Delegation isn’t just a productivity skill. For a lot of entrepreneurs, it’s an identity shift.

Hiring Changes the Game

Then there’s the other gigantic growing pain: people. 😅

Building a team can be one of the greatest parts of growing a company, but hiring employees also introduces an entirely new set of challenges.

You’re no longer only responsible for doing great work. Now you’re responsible for communicating expectations, training people, giving feedback, handling mistakes, solving problems, and creating an environment where other people can succeed. In other words: you have to become a leader.

And leadership is a skill! Nobody magically wakes up one morning because their business hit a certain revenue number and suddenly knows exactly how to manage a team. We learn it. And sometimes, we learn it through incredible employees who help take our businesses places we never could have taken them alone. And other times, we learn it because something goes spectacularly sideways. 😂

Both experiences teach us something.

The Business Grows — and So Do You

Maybe the biggest takeaway from this entire conversation is that business growth and personal growth are almost impossible to separate.

Every new stage asks something different of you. At first, success might mean learning how to sell.

Then it means learning how to hire. Then delegate. Then communicate. Then lead. Then build systems. Then trust those systems — and the people operating them — without constantly jumping back in.

The skills that got you here aren't necessarily the skills that will get you there. And that can feel uncomfortable because growth often requires leaving behind a version of entrepreneurship that you've finally gotten really good at. But that's also where the opportunity lives.

The Growing Pains Are Part of It

If you're experiencing growing pains in your business right now, it doesn't necessarily mean something has gone wrong. Sometimes the discomfort is simply evidence that the business has outgrown an old way of operating. The challenge is figuring out what needs to come with you into the next stage — and what you're finally ready to leave behind.

Our conversation with Ashley reminded us that growth isn't just about getting bigger.

It's about becoming capable of leading something bigger. And yes, that can mean mistakes, awkward transitions, difficult hires, uncomfortable delegation, and a whole lot of figuring-it-out-as-you-go.

But on the other side? There are also incredible people, new opportunities, stronger leadership, more freedom, and a business capable of becoming something much bigger than what one person could ever build alone.

Growing pains are called growing pains for a reason. 🌱