My guest on today’s podcast is Rob Autry. Rob is the owner of Meeting Street Insights, a public opinion research firm that specializes in positioning companies, causes and candidates for better outcomes based on smarter research and insights.
What’s unique about Rob though, is that the heart of his methodology isn’t around designing research to get a specific response, or simply working for politicians, which is a common misconception of public opinion firms. But rather, around how focusing on his clients’ values and goals has de-commoditized Meeting Street Insights from a predominantly transactional industry.
Letting Go and Working Smarter
In this episode, we talk in depth about how no matter what systems and processes a public opinion firm has implemented within the practice, if Rob hadn’t surrounded himself with A-players on his own team, who over time become thought leaders on their own, then he would have had a hard time accomplishing any success; why as an entrepreneur himself, Rob realized the most important part of any business is investing in relationships, most importantly, those with his own team and clients; learning to diversify his client base to broaden his firm’s impact, even though he’ll never get completely away from politics; and how hiring his team for long-term success may just be the way to fund his retirement by passing on Meeting Street Insights through an internal exit plan.
How to Build a Business that Lasts
We also talk about the process that Rob uses every year of writing his own job description to help him decide what he wants to delegate away; learning to rely on specialists for accounting, financial, legal and human resource issues; and how the pace of technology was pushed by the Covid-19 pandemic to get more and better data from both qualitative and quantitative resources.
And be certain to listen to the end, where Rob shares a practical tip that any business owner can use to build a business that lasts.
Episode Highlights
- [11:00] The one thing Rob wishes he knew when he started his career
- [13:25] How Rob juggles the various aspects of being a business leader and balances working in his business with working on his business
- [19:44] The surprising thing Rob learned about his research after going virtual during the pandemic
- [25:56] What Rob believes is the biggest misconception of public opinion research
- [31:09] The key resources that have helped Rob build a business that lasts
Enjoy the Episode!
