How Finding His “Why” Lit The Manner Forward For Stephen Tracy’s Business

After one too many 10-hour shifts selling candles at Canal Street Market in Manhattan, Stephen Tracy wanted his job with. to give up Buy candles.

But he had a problem: he couldn’t give up.

Keap Candles was not just his job, it was his business. He had also signed a contract promising to show up at the market every day. Stephen quit his job at Google just a year earlier to start the company with a friend. And now it didn’t go as expected. At all.

It wasn’t until Stephen and his co-founder thought carefully about the “why” behind their business that things began to turn. Though Stephen admits he wasn’t happy and wanted to quit, he had just enough optimism to make some drastic changes that ultimately saved both the company and Stephen as a person.

With insights from Buffer’s Small Business, Big Lessons Podcast Episode Two and the accompanying unpublished interview, Stephen shared what it’s like to take a break from business operations to find out why your business is failing – and use that knowledge to change everything.

Stephen Tracy, founder of Keap

Start with passion and hit a wall

Stephen and his friend Harry Doull felt unsatisfied with life in technology and regularly discussed what they enjoyed outside of work. One day a surprise came when they both realized how much they loved candles.

“We met for coffee and talked about what we wanted to do next and one day candles came up as a topic of conversation and it was a surprise that we both loved candles so much,” Stephen said.

The duo realized the passion they both had and decided to start a candle company, even though neither of them had ever made a candle. Within a few months, the euphoria they felt as new entrepreneurs had come to a startling standstill.

“Three months after we quit our job, we’d spent a lot more money than we expected and had already done some pretty drastic things like paying off our retirement savings,” Stephen said. “And we still didn’t have a candle!”

Financial pressures rose and some candles were made, Stephen and Harry started saying yes to anything they thought would help them sell candles. Eventually they signed a contract to open a booth in Manhattan Canal Street Market. Without really thinking about it, Stephen said the duo pledged to occupy the booth from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. 364 days a year. And they signed a one-year lease.

“We got into a situation where we didn’t spend our time doing the things we wanted to do,” Stephen said. “We felt like we were so trapped that now we had to show up and a retail shift to work.”

Keap founders Harry (left) and Stephen (right)

Find out why this is what drives you

While Stephen said there had been no official low point in the company, both he and Harry felt like failures. Candles didn’t sell that well, they felt trapped in the Canal Street Market contract, and they both considered calling the deal a loss and moving on.

Not ready to quit, but something has changed in Stephen.

“What really happened was that we eventually realized that we weren’t happy as individuals or as a company, and that something had to change, and that there was still enough hope and optimism in both of us to see that there was a way out gave that, ”said Stephen.

“We managed to gain a very precious time just to spend time together … talking about our purpose?” Stephan continued. “… I remember feeling a little lost in the process, but that was what we instinctively felt that we had to do.”

In the end, Stephen said that he and Harry realized they needed to be clear about their bigger purpose. Otherwise, he said, “we would just fall into the same habit of saying yes to things over and over again.”

The duo also decided to work with a business coach – Holly out FragHollyHow – in the summer of 2019. Stephen said it felt like therapy when Holly told them to think first about what they want as people and then as a business owner. The first assignment Holly gave them was profound for Stephen: “Write down where we hoped our lives will be in five years.”

The activity led to some shocking discoveries for the downtown Brooklyn-based startup, the first and largest being geography: Harry wanted to move to New York State, while Stephen wanted to move to Long Island or even back to his native Guernsey, near the city Great Britain to be by the sea. Second, the company wanted to help create spaces for conversation and connection, and create new moments in a constantly distracted world. Stephen quickly realized that the current way they ran their business was not going to help them achieve that why.

“Many people dream of being an entrepreneur, of having personal freedom. Then why should you feel in one place or spend your time doing things you never wanted to do or in one place? you never wanted to be? “said Stephan.

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Change your business to suit your why

Fresh from working with Holly, Stephen and Harry were much more mindful of their 2020 and 2021 annual planning meetings. Instead of thinking about business goals, they thought of balancing business growth and personal goals with the goal of a “truly integrated feel of the company we’re building want”.

One shocking change resulted from this planning: Keap deleted all of her social media accounts.

“That meant for us, just to be clear, no more Facebook, no more Instagram and no more marketing through these channels,” said Stephen.

As a direct-to-consumer company promoting on Facebook and Instagram, Stephen said the decision should have been a daunting one. However, it was not because they were acting in accordance with their deep personal desires.

“We wanted to take a stand and say that it doesn’t make sense for a company trying to have a conversation and a space for connection to force you to check Instagram for our latest posts.”

It found the duo had more time to focus on sales and marketing methods that felt more authentic to their “why”.

“We’re writing more stories on our blog,” said Stephen. “We’re sending more emails every month and hopefully in the not too distant future we can do more things that we actually enjoy.”

Workshop in progress, Keap

It’s not (just) about money

Looking back two years later, he said that the founding of the company was authentically based on two questions: 1) What is the company really about? and 2) why are you doing this?

For many people, the answer to both questions is “money”. But Stephen and Harry realized that as entrepreneurs, they had a deeper “why” to themselves. Stephen doesn’t judge people who start businesses for the money. It’s just that he thinks there is something deeper about most people, whether they realize it or not.

“Running the company with a sense of the ‘why’ at its core is, in my opinion, the way to run a company in a way that brings fulfillment, joy and happiness,” said Stephen.