245. Scaling a People-Powered Sales Team with Lisa Whitehouse

Jul 30, 2025

In this coaching session, Adrienne Dorison and Emily Doyle sit down with Lisa Whitehouse, founder of Clever Vine — a UK-based outsourced business development agency — to unpack the mental and operational roadblocks keeping her from hiring and scaling with confidence.

If you’ve ever second-guessed whether it’s safe to grow your team, this one’s for you.

Here’s what we cover:
✅ What “team trauma” looks like — and how it lingers in your decision-making
✅ Why Lisa keeps jumping back into client work (and what it’s costing her)
✅ The challenge of hiring for soft skills and high performance
✅ How to create capacity before you need it
✅ Navigating the tension between small clients and large contracts

Lisa shares how a past business failure still shapes her thinking — and how that fear shows up in her leadership today. Plus, Adrienne and Emily break down:
- The mindset shifts required to grow sustainably
- How to set up hiring systems that feel safer
- Why pricing must reflect skill (not just service)

If you’re a service-based business owner trying to scale your team without losing quality or control, this episode will help you lead with clarity instead of fear.

🔥 Hit play and let’s get into it!

Top 5 Takeaways:

Fear Isn’t Strategy – Past business trauma can silently shape present-day decisions. Unpack it or risk staying stuck.
Hire Ahead of Demand – Build the bench before you need it. Otherwise, you’ll always be catching up.
Let Go to Grow – Just because you can jump in doesn’t mean you should. Founder fill-ins cost more than they save.
Profit Needs Pricing Power – If your service is high-touch and human-led, your pricing should reflect that.
Don’t Just Attract Talent—Train It – A clear onboarding timeline builds trust (and saves money).

Chapters

01:10 – Meet Lisa: What Clever Vine does and who they serve
03:42 – The challenge: balancing demand with capacity
06:58 – Why past team layoffs still shape Lisa’s fear
10:24 – Jumping back in: the hidden cost of being the fallback
14:08 – Improving onboarding speed with better hiring clarity
17:02 – Balancing a values-driven culture with performance goals
19:50 – Creating team diversity across big and small clients
22:20 – Why pricing must match value in a human-led business
25:12 – Facing the fear: journaling, self-awareness, and belief work
31:00 – Lisa’s biggest takeaway + next step

Connect with Lisa:

👉 Website: https://www.clevervine.co.uk