Dear BTF Community,
Most businesses don’t stop growing because they run out of opportunity.
They stop growing because the leadership that built the business isn’t the leadership the next stage requires.
In conversation with Natasha Vandenhurk, Founder and CEO of Three Farmers Foods, one idea surfaced repeatedly. Every stage of growth asked her to let go of something, whether that was a product, a responsibility or the belief that she had to be involved in every decision.
Key Takeaways for Business Owners:
- Your role should evolve as quickly as your business.
- Culture begins to break long before financial performance does.
- Listening becomes more valuable than having all the answers.
Enjoy,
Mark
Every Stage Requires A Different Founder
Three Farmers Foods has looked different at each stage of its journey.
The business pivoted from culinary oils into better-for-you snacks. It partnered with another manufacturer before moving into its own 30,000-square-foot facility. More recently, the company paused to rethink its brand through a complete rebrand.
Looking back, Natasha doesn’t describe those moments as changes in products or facilities. Instead, they became changes in perspective.
Each pivot began the same way.
By listening.
“Listening to the market and realizing we needed to pivot… forced us to really flesh out what is our vision, what is our mission? Not building it around one product but looking broader than that.”
Markets evolve and customer expectations change, but Natasha also believes timing matters. Building a great product isn’t enough if the market isn’t ready for it. Equally, waiting too long can leave businesses trying to catch up. Part of leadership is recognizing the difference and using quieter periods to prepare for the moment when opportunity arrives.
Your Job Changes Before You Realize It
One of Natasha’s biggest leadership shifts came when Three Farmers began gaining traction with major retailers.
Until then, she had done almost everything herself.
“In the beginning, you’re literally everything. You’re doing everything.”
As the business expanded, she realized her value no longer came from doing the work.
It came from building the team that could.
“My job was to identify talent and create a space where they could come in and do their best work.”
It’s a simple idea that many founders find difficult to put into practice.
The business eventually reaches a point where its biggest constraint isn’t capital or customers. It’s whether the founder is prepared to let other people lead.
Culture Breaks Before Performance Does
When asked what “breaking the business” actually looks like, Natasha didn’t talk about missed revenue targets or operational problems.
She talked about people.
“When communication starts to break down and you begin to see the culture slipping, that’s when you know you’re starting to break the business.”
For Natasha, culture isn’t something you work on after growth. It should form the foundation that enables continued growth.
When communication slows, it can make decision-making unclear, with people waiting to be told what to do instead of solving problems themselves.
Those are often the earliest warning signs.
“People are used to structure, people are used to being told what to do… it can be a very uncomfortable environment for some individuals.”
Scaling requires a different mindset. Teams need enough trust to make decisions and enough confidence to learn as they go.
Listening Is A Leadership Skill
As a business grows, so does the volume of decisions, conversations and competing priorities. Natasha believes the instinct to have all the answers becomes less important than the ability to notice what others might be missing.
“You have to be listening between the lines… What are customers telling you? What is sales data telling you?”
That same mindset applies inside the business. Leaders rarely hear every concern directly, which means listening requires more than simply waiting for feedback. It demands curiosity, reflection and the discipline to question your own assumptions.
“The greatest strength a leader can have when scaling is the ability to listen and self-reflect and quiet their own internal voice.”
For Natasha, leadership becomes less about having the loudest voice in the room and more about creating enough space to hear what the business, the team and the market are already telling you.
Letting Go Creates Capacity
Delegation wasn’t something Natasha mastered once.
It’s been a leadership skill she has had to practice at every stage of the company’s growth.
One recent example was demand planning, a function she once believed she couldn’t hand over because it sat at the intersection of sales, operations and production. Once she found the right person, however, her perspective changed completely.
“Once you’re on the other side, you can’t imagine going back and doing it the other way.”
Handing over responsibility didn’t reduce her contribution. It created the capacity to focus on the decisions only she could make. For many founders, that’s one of the hardest transitions.
The responsibilities they hold onto most tightly are often the very ones that need to be entrusted to someone else if the business is going to keep growing.
Stay Close As You Grow
As businesses grow, it’s natural for leaders to become further removed from the people doing the work.
Natasha believes that’s exactly when they need to make a conscious effort to stay connected.
“Stay open, listen, be on the front lines sometimes. Don’t remove yourself from the company and from the front lines.”
Staying close isn’t just about understanding the day-to-day. It’s also about staying grounded. Success brings confidence, but it can also narrow a leader’s perspective if they’re no longer hearing honest feedback or seeing the business as it really is.
“Stay humble… you can stop seeing reality and start seeing what you want to see.”
For Natasha, maintaining perspective means remaining connected to customers, spending time with employees and surrounding yourself with people who are prepared to challenge your thinking rather than simply reinforce it.
Final Reflection
Towards the end of our conversation, Natasha reflected on one lesson she wishes she had understood sooner.
Preparedness begins long before the next stage of growth arrives.
Three Farmers spent years navigating a market that wasn’t quite ready for its products. Looking back, she sees that period differently.
“We spent that time being productive, being ready for when the growth came.”
Every business experiences seasons where progress feels slower than expected but those periods don’t have to be wasted.
If they’re used well, they become the time when leaders strengthen their team, refine their culture and prepare the business for opportunities that haven’t arrived yet.
In many ways, that’s what scaling really is, not just growing the business but growing into the leader the business will need next.
These are exactly the kinds of conversations we’ll continue at BTF Winnipeg on October 21 and BTF Vancouver on November 18, where business owners, advisors and entrepreneurs will come together to share practical insights on growth, leadership and building businesses that are ready for whatever comes next.