Ep 266 – CEO Confessions: Why I Didn’t Apply for Inc. 5000 for 2024

In this season, it’s not about external validation.”  Dr. Darnyelle Jervey Harmon

When I first learned of the Inc 5000 in 2021 it was as businesses were being recognized for their company’s growth in the previous three years, and it was too late to get on the list for the year. I immediately said to myself that I was going to be on that list.

And in 2022, I was.  My company ranked #1209 out of 5,000 fastest growing companies.

I couldn’t be prouder, elated, validated.

You see, the Inc.5000, unlike many awards that you can win for growth, is one of the ones were you legit must prove and verify your company’s income.

That’s right, you can’t just say it on social media and that makes it true.

So, imagine when we achieved this goal and hit the top 25% that year.  I was over the moon.  With that recognition, I saw new clients, new stages, a book deal, and many other accoutrements because I had a strategy in place of how we would leverage the recognition.

And It was so good, I decided to do it again.  

And we did. In 2023, my company ranked #1103. 

And I honestly thought I would seek to make the list every year that we meet the qualifications to be recognized.  After all, by now our company’s ability to generate millions was solidified, and we were seeing steady sustainable growth every year.

Yet, when it came time to apply for 2024, I hesitated and questioned if I would apply.

Ultimately, I decided against it.  In this insightful episode, I share why. But here’s the secret that most people won’t tell you: true success isn’t defined by a ranking. Today, I want to invite you the “behind the veil” and share an honest and transparent look into my experience with the Inc. 5000 list. It’s about making informed decisions that align with your values and long-term vision.

The truth is in this season of Anchored Ascension, things have changed.  I have changed.

If you have your eyes set on the Inc 5000, this episode will share what I wish I knew before submitting that application and application fee the first time.  I will also share my truth about what to consider before you apply. This is going to be a bit juicy and if you want to hear all the tea, grab your Move to Millions Podcast notebook and listen in to discover:

• How to qualify for the Inc.5000
• 5 things you should know before you apply
• The importance of a strategy and how to leverage paid media
• And so much more

Powerful Quotes During the Episode:

1. “I invested five figures to participate in the Inc. 5000 list, and honestly, I felt it was a money grab for Inc.”
2. “Despite the disappointment at the Inc. 5000 event in 2023, I found value in supporting other members and actually gained a client.”
3. “Being on the list for the past two years was enough validation for me. I don’t need external validation from the Inc. 5000 list anymore.”
4. “The most sustainable businesses are ranked between one thousand and three thousand. Those in the top 500 usually experience unsustainable exponential growth.”
5. “We are on track to reach $10 million in revenue, and that is enough proof of our capabilities.”
6. “I’m focusing on streamlining the business, serving more clients, and defying statistics to generate millions of dollars in profits.”
7. “Our company has a strong track record, and our focus now is on personal growth and alignment with our values.”
8. “Being recognized as a black woman on the Inc. 5000 list and as one of the top businesses in Delaware is a powerful statement for my clients and future clients.”
9. “If you resonate with my thoughts and need support in leveraging the benefits of being on the Inc. 5000 list, let’s have a conversation.”
10. “It’s rare for businesses, especially women and minority-owned businesses, to generate seven figures. I want to demonstrate that it’s possible.”

Resources Mentioned:

• Move to Millions by Dr. Darnyelle Jervey Harmon – Get Your Copy
• Companion Guide for Move to Millions – Download for a detailed overview of the seven systems to seven figures.
• Join the Move to Millions Facebook Group for ongoing support and community engagement – Join Now
• Move to Millions 90-Day Business Growth Planner – Get Your Planner

Want more of Darnyelle?

Social Media Links:

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• http://www.twitter.com/darnyellejervey
• http://www.linkedin.com/in/darnyellejerveyharmon

 Links Mentioned in the Episode:

• MovetoMillions.com
• MovetoMillionsGroup.com
• HausofMillions.com
• Move to Millions Continuum Episode
• God Girls Making Millions

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Darnyelle [00:00:00]:
The real businesses that are sustainable are the ones that are in the one thousands to three thousands in terms of their rank. Their reason why is because those businesses in the top 500 are typically they do not last. Their rate of growth is so exponential that they cannot sustain it and they never make the list again. You’re listening to the Move to Millions Podcast with Dr. Darnyelle Jervey Harmon, the place to be for high level conversations about all things millions. Your mission mindset, methodologies, mandate movement, messaging, marketing metrics, and most definitely, your money. I am your host, spiritual business growth coach, Dr. Darnyelle J. Harmon. Join me each week for inspiring stories, powerful interviews, and business growth strategy to help you experience abundance in your life because of your business.

Darnyelle [00:00:58]:
If you’re ready to move to your next level, everything let’s get this party started. This episode is powered by God girls making millions I am so excited to be bringing back our luxurious mastermind experience for seven figure women who are ready to have conversations about their anointing and abundance because they are women who are about their birthright, their bank accounts, and their business. If this is you, I have two distinct opportunities for you. Number one, you can go ahead and register for my information session. We’ll put the link in the show notes. It’s happening on Thursday, September 5 at 01:00 p.m. eastern Standard Time. You’re going to learn all about God, girls making millions.

Darnyelle [00:01:47]:
Or number two, if you know you need to be in this room, a high level room that’s going to serve and support your next season, you can go ahead right now and [email protected]. dot this episode is going to be vulnerable, transparent, and probably really, really juicy. I did a post on Facebook a couple of about a week or so ago because they just recently announced the 2024 Inc. 5000 fastest growing companies in the United States list. And I made a decision in 2024 not to reapply after having been on the list in 2022 and 2023. And in that post, I’m actually gonna read it in the event that you’re not following me on social media. But if you’re not following me on social media, can we just talk about why not? Like you’re missing out on some really good stuff. So I will highly recommend that you go and you find me.

Darnyelle [00:02:47]:
I’m yell Jervey Harmon everywhere. So I made this post. And I made the post because I saw all the people who are super excited about being recognized on the list. And let me just be clear, it’s a big deal. It is absolutely a big deal and I’ll get into why in a moment. I’m just searching just so you know what I’m doing. I’m biding myself a little bit of time because I’m searching for the post that I made on social media so I can read to you what I said. Okay, here it is.

Darnyelle [00:03:15]:
I did it on August 15, which I think is when the list actually came out. Congrats to all of the recently announced 2024 Inc. 5000 fastest growing companies. It’s a big deal to demonstrate the growth of your company in this way. I celebrate you before I hit the list in 2022, it was my goal to make it because I knew that this wasn’t an award that you could fake. You have to prove and verify your income was at least $2 million in the year that just finished when you apply. Yep, prove and verify. There are a lot of awards where they don’t ask you to prove.

Darnyelle [00:03:52]:
And we all know that there are a lot of people out here spouting seven figures that don’t actually make or profit at that level to get on the list. They start. They take your starting revenue and closing revenue over a three year period to determine your percentage of growth after the last two years on the Inc. 5000 in the top 25%. In 2022, we were numbered 1209 and in 2023 we were number 1103. For 2024, despite experiencing another year of growth that would have placed us on the list, I made the decision not to apply. I went on to say, I’m thinking about doing a full podcast episode on why would that be of interest to you? And this post got 118 comments on Facebook and three shares and more comments on ignore. I wanted to take a moment to just do a couple of different things because I’m not.

Darnyelle [00:04:53]:
The purpose of this episode is not to dissuade anyone from the Inc. 5000 list. Quite the contrary. I’m going to share with you some of the things that I didn’t know before I got myself on the list and some of the things I think you should know. I was having a conversation with a good colleague who just made the list and was asking me if I was going to the conference in October. And I was like, no, I didn’t even apply this year. And she was like, what? You’ve been on the list the last two years. You were part of the inspiration as to why I wanted to get on the list.

Darnyelle [00:05:29]:
And I said, nope, I’m actually thinking about doing a podcast episode about why I didn’t, you know, and she’s like, yeah, I’m just really surprised at how much everything costs. And I’m going to get into that because that is part of the reason. It’s not the only reason, but it is at least part of the reason. All right, so let’s journey back in time a little bit, and let’s first start talking about why it was important for me. Actually, you know what? Let’s journey back even further than that. Let’s just define for everyone what is the Inc. 5000? Inc. Which is a media company, produces a list every year of the top 5000 businesses based on the businesses that apply and meet the requirements to apply and their percentage of growth.

Darnyelle [00:06:12]:
You will be rated from one to 5000 based on how much your company has grown in a three year span. Right? I have no idea. And I didn’t attempt to do any research to find out how many businesses apply to the Inc. 5000 every single year. So I don’t have that as a realm of data for you. But they take those businesses that do apply that meet the criteria and they rate them from one to 5000. The top 500 businesses have experienced the most amount of growth. But what you have to understand is that it is not necessarily an apples to apples comparison.

Darnyelle [00:06:52]:
And here’s what I mean to hit the list, your minimum income requirement three years ago. So, for instance, for the list that just came out for 2024, it was a three year span from 2019. 2020. No, maybe it was 20, 2020. I don’t know what the span was. I’m confusing myself trying to figure it out for you. But it’s a three year span. So it’s from 20.

Darnyelle [00:07:15]:
It’s so it’s 20. So it was, you had to have done at least $100,000 in 2020 in your business by the end of the year, and you had to have done at least $2 million in your business by the end of 2023 because it’s a three year span. Okay? Now, if a business in 2020 was just getting started and only did $100,000 that year in their business, and then at the end of 2023 they did $2 million, their percentage of growth is going to be way bigger than a company who had done a million dollars in 2020 and had done $5 million, let’s say, at the end of 2023. And I think it’s important for you to understand that because when you see the list and you see the numbers, you might want to think that every single person experienced the same level of growth. And that is not, in fact, the case. Hey, God, girl, have you attended event after event looking for an up leveled conversation and community only to realize you’ve outgrown the rooms you used to frequent? For inspiration and implementation, I want to invite you to spend three days immersing yourself in a safe, aligned and significant space where you can have the deep, vulnerable and transparent conversations about what life beyond the money really looks like. For the first time, maybe ever, you can have the conversations that really shift the way you show up in every area of your life and focus on getting access to more. More freedom, more expression, more self care, more meaning, more alignment, and more connections.

Darnyelle [00:08:53]:
God, girls, making millions is the only room of its kind for you to finally unearth what is burgeoning for your next level. Learn more and submit your application [email protected]. i know what it feels like to get your business to a major milestone and still feel like something is missing. If you’ve gotten your business to $300,000 a year or more and it doesn’t make you feel all warm and fuzzy, I know exactly what you need. You need a business audit. And there is nothing that would bring me more joy than to look beneath the hood of your business to see what’s keeping you from the million dollar mark. There’s only one catch you’re going to have to apply to learn more about a session that will allow me to expose your gaps and help you to understand what are the gateways to get you to the million dollar mark. Go now to Move to Millionsmastermind.com.

Darnyelle [00:09:50]:
some people that applied for this 2024 list, their businesses did $10 million in 2020 and their business maybe it did $15 million in 2023. That percentage of growth is going to be less. I remember when I was talking to a colleague who had been on the list every year and they still get on the list. They were on the list again in 2024. They’ve done the list consecutively more than ten years. And what they actually told me is that it’s not a flex. These are their words, not mine. It’s not a flex to be in the top 500.

Darnyelle [00:10:24]:
The real businesses that are sustainable are the ones that are in the one thousands to 3000 in terms of their rank. Their reason why is because those businesses in the top 500 are typically they do not last. Their rate of growth is so exponential that they cannot sustain it and they never make the list again. I don’t know if that’s true. So I want you to take that with a grain of salt because I’m not 100% positive it’s true. It’s hearsay is what someone else told me. But it kind of makes sense. They were like, you want to be in like, you know, like we were 1211 hundred.

Darnyelle [00:11:05]:
You want to be somewhere between 1003 thousand. That shows sustainable growth over a period of time. And I would venture to guess that if we had have submitted for this year, we would have still been in that top 25% of growth based on what our company has done. Right. So I just want you to understand that that’s how you get on the list. If you apply, you pay the application fee of, I think it starts at 295 and then it goes up to like maybe 595 if you do it late. So you’re going to pay anywhere from three to $600 to apply to get on the list. And then if you happen to be one of the businesses that have the percentage of growth that numbers you between one and 5000 out of all the businesses that apply, then you will get a standing on the list.

Darnyelle [00:11:50]:
I’m actually, while I’m talking to y’all, I’m actually going to go to Google and see if we can find out how many businesses actually apply for the list every year. I don’t know. I don’t even know if it’s relevant and important, but I just want to see if it tells me how many businesses apply for Inc. 5000 a year. Okay, let’s see what comes up. See if it tells me. Yeah, it gives me the application fee. So the application fee for this past one was actually dollar 495.

Darnyelle [00:12:19]:
So they paid dollar 500 to apply for the, listen. But it doesn’t tell me how many people actually apply. So I can’t give you that. I can’t tell you how many companies actually apply to come up with the top 5000. Okay, all right. Enough about that. So let me now talk to you about why I wanted to get on the list, why I initially applied. So when I first learned of the list, like, cognitively, coherently learned of the list, it was 2021 and I missed the cutoff in 2021.

Darnyelle [00:12:50]:
My businesses did enough for me to have made the Inc. 5000, but I didn’t know about it, so I couldn’t apply to be recognized for 2021. By the time I found out of it, it was way past the application point. It was actually when in August when they were giving the people and I was like, wait a minute, I could have done this. So anyway, so too late for 2021, 2022. Eyes on the prize. I’m applying to the list. Why did I want to apply to the list? Number one, first and foremost was the validation that I run a business that generates multiple seven figures a year.

Darnyelle [00:13:30]:
If you are in the coaching and consulting space, then you know, and you hear so many people talking about seven figures, and often they are talking about a cumulative seven figures, like, my company has done seven figures over the last three years. And I’m not, I’m not knocking that. I talked about that in my book. Move to millions. If you don’t have a copy, you should. There’s nothing wrong with accumulating, but I’m talking about the people who, in one year’s time or less, generate seven figures. Right? And so to be amongst the businesses, according to statistics given to us by the SBA, the Small Business Administration, and the IR’s, 4.2% of the 33 million businesses in the United States generate seven figures or more a year. That number goes down substantially.

Darnyelle [00:14:26]:
If you are a woman, it’s 1.9% for women and it is 0.5% for black women and it is 0.9% for black businesses. So it is a huge deal to be legitimately recognized as a company that has done at least multiple seven figures. So that was my initial impetus as a business consultant in the business coaching industry. Lots of people are claiming to do seven figures that have not are you ready for God? Girls making millions 2024 GGMM is an amazing, luxurious, high end experience experience for the woman entrepreneur small business owner who is about their birthright, their business and their bank accounts. If you’re looking for a safe, significant and aligned space to finally unearth what your next level looks like when you no longer have to focus on making money, this is for you. Learn more and submit your application [email protected]. want to know what it’s like to work with me and the incredible factor university coaching team, you can get started today with the Move to Millions 90 day business growth planner. 90 days at a time, you’ll be setting your business on a trajectory that will make the Move to Millions happen much faster for you.

Darnyelle [00:15:51]:
It’s got everything that you need to track every strategy, every sale, all of your KPI’s, as well as your self care and life transformational needs. We made sure we left nothing out of this amazing planner, and by accessing the planner, you’ll get a behind the scenes view of what it’s like to work with me and my team. Go grab yours [email protected]. dot I cannot call it in if I am on the Inc. 5000. I had to prove, meaning I had to show tax returns or profit and loss statements and have them certified by my attorney or my accountant that I am not lying about my company’s ability to have made at least $2 million in any given year. I wanted that recognition because it’s proof of our results and what we make possible happen for ourselves. First and foremost, I’m not a theorist, and I tell people all the time, I can help you grow your business, any kind of business, because I know business.

Darnyelle [00:16:53]:
Throughout my whole career, from corporate America to nonprofits, to direct sales to entrepreneurship and small business ownership, I have watched businesses substantially grow as a result of my brilliance. And now I have an award that I won where I had to prove it. I wanted that. I wanted to also demonstrate what’s possible for our clients and future clients. As a black woman on the Inc. 5000 who went to the Inc. 5000 conference that year, that first year, and there was very few people who looked like me there. It was a big deal, was quite the accomplishment.

Darnyelle [00:17:30]:
I was so proud. That’s why I initially applied. I also wanted the brand and industry positioning as well as the state recognition, because although I was number 1209 on the national list, I was number two in the state of Delaware. That’s a big deal. Now, again, this is based on the companies that apply. Every company does not apply. So it’s not a complete, it’s not a sample size of 33 million businesses in the United States. Let’s just keep that in mind, even though we don’t know how many businesses actually apply each year.

Darnyelle [00:18:05]:
Okay? But I wanted that. I wanted that brand and industry positioning I reapplied in 2023 because I wanted the repeat. I wanted to be able to establish for the world and anyone who might care that we did it. We were not a one hit wonder that we did it again, that we could do it again, and that we actually grew because we went from 1209 to 1103. And again, I venture to guess if we had have submitted for 2024 that we would have been a little bit higher again because we had another tremendous year. The business doing almost $5 million. Okay. The business is going to do $10 million this year.

Darnyelle [00:18:49]:
So we are on a trajectory of growth. We are becoming an eight figure company, just like I told you we would. And yet, and still I did not apply again for 2024. And I’m going to tell you why in a minute. First, I want to talk to you about my experience on the Inc. 5000. This is just for the realm of perspective. So those of you who desire to get on the list, and it’s a goal of yours to get on the list.

Darnyelle [00:19:13]:
You can know what my experience was. It is not my intent that my experience would taint your experience and make you question whether or not you should join the list. But I’m just being vulnerable, honest, and transparent about my own experience. Right? So I. Of course, I submitted the application fee. I don’t remember what it was in 22 or 23, but I did. And in addition to applying to get on the list, once I got on the list in 2022, I spent another five figures. I don’t know the exact amount, y’all, but five figures.

Darnyelle [00:19:43]:
Between going to the conference, enrolling in, they have this special recognition that you can get. I can’t even tell you the name of it, but I enrolled in that. I went to the conference. I flew there. I stayed in a hotel for four or five days. I got desktop plaque that was like, dollar 500. I got the wall plaque that was like, $500. I got commemorative magazines for my team.

Darnyelle [00:20:09]:
I paid for the ability to use their logo on my website for a year. That was $1,800. So I spent five figures on the backs of this recognition that I earned in order to show the world that I earned it. Now, it was my own personal choice. They didn’t make me do it, but I did it. And that’s when I started to realize that the Inc. 5000 list is a money grab for ink. No disrespect, we’re in businesses to make money.

Darnyelle [00:20:36]:
So I’m not mad at them because they’re making boatloads of money on the backs of the success of the businesses that apply to the list, they are making thousands, tens of thousands of dollars. I have a good friend who got on the ink 5000 the same year that I did the very first time, who invested way more than the five figures that I invested through all the things that they did on the list. And I get it because, remember, and I teach you guys this, I say that sales is 93% emotion, 7% logic, and the emotion that comes with getting on the Inc. 5000. It’s a 20 on a scale from one to ten. And so I’m not mad at Inc for capitalizing on the emotion that we feel by getting on the list and making more money. But what did doctor Maya Angelou say? Once you know better, you do better. So, for the second year, 2023, I still applied, so I still pay the application fee.

Darnyelle [00:21:35]:
I got my wall plaque, which is downstairs in our executive boardroom in our workhouse. But that was it. I didn’t pay for any. Oh no. I did pay another $1,800 to continue being able to use their logo on my website. So I spent far less. Still four figures, you know, probably about 2500 or 3000 including the application fee. I paid that right again, my own choice.

Darnyelle [00:22:00]:
I didn’t go ham like I did the year before, spending all of that money on this because of this recognition. But I did want to commemorate the fact that I hit the list for the second year in a row. Okay. I went to the event. The event wasn’t great. This was the first Inc. 5000 back after Covid and I could have had a v eight if I’m just being honest. The speakers weren’t amazing.

Darnyelle [00:22:27]:
The sessions that they gave us weren’t amazing. The highlight for me in being there is that I was able to be on the coaching team and get an opportunity to support other Inc. 5000 members. And I did get a client from that. So that was a highlight for me. I did not realize that in getting on the list I would have to pay for everything. I wanted to commemorate the fact that I was on the list. There was no award given to me.

Darnyelle [00:22:58]:
There was a gala at the Inc. 5000 conference and my name, the name of my company went up on the screen. That was the extent of it. But one could argue that I paid the $2,000 to attend the event. That I paid even for that. That was my experience. I just want you to know if you have a desire to get on the list so that you know what you’re hitting for if you go through the process in doing it. And let’s also be clear.

Darnyelle [00:23:22]:
You want the commemorative thing. You at least want the desk plaque that’s behind me. For those of you who’ll see the video of this, you want that at least? You probably. I wanted the wall plaque, right? I wanted those things how I made those investments. But I. I didn’t realize that it was going to be a five figure plus investment in order to get recognized for something that I legitimately did inside of my business. I just want you to know that. Now let’s get into why I didn’t reapply for 2024.

Darnyelle [00:23:50]:
Okay, so first and foremost, Inc is a media company. So applying to get on their list is technically paid media. The reviews are in. Move two millions. The proven framework to become a million dollar CEO with grace and ease instead of hustle and grind is a best seller with thousands of copies sold. We are raising a generation of million dollar CEO’s. You got next. Grab your copy and our bonuses [email protected].

Darnyelle [00:24:25]:
and it is a moneymaker for Inc. Again, I’m not mad at Inc. That’s their business model. But I didn’t feel the need any longer to pay for that media because forever I will be able to say that I am an Inc. 5000 CEO and that I was twice on the list. Who knows, I might change my stance one day and decide to get on the list again. I don’t know. But I’m telling you right here, right now, I made the decision in 2024 as I was looking at my business and expenses and wanting to improve our profitability, asking myself what did I absolutely need to invest in to move the business forward in being on the Inc 5000 for the last two years, that alone has done something for my business.

Darnyelle [00:25:12]:
We have a complete strategy around it and that will never be taken away from me. I didn’t feel the need to have to keep saying I’m an ink 5000 by doing it in multiple years in order to be able to leverage the strategy that we have been working since being on the list two years in a row. So it was kind of like I’ve been there, done that. Again, no disrespect to anyone who made the decision that they want to be on the list, but for your girl, been there, done that, got the t shirt. Additionally, the season that I’m in right now, now if you are an OG listener to the podcast, and you have probably heard me talk about my Achilles heel, which is comparison, right? I listen. I’m just like every other humanity. I have this innate need to feel like I matter and I belong. And that has been a big story that I’ve been telling myself in my life for a long time.

Darnyelle [00:26:03]:
I’ve been doing a lot of internal work, not just with my therapist, but just on my own. And I’m in a season right now where I don’t need external validation. I don’t need Inc 5000 to tell the world I’m great because I don’t have a problem telling the world I’m great. I have if you were to go to my website right now, you would be able to find 5000 client success stories of people whose lives and businesses we’ve changed through our work. I don’t need an Inc 5000 recognition to validate who I am. Not in this season, not as I’ve been spending this year in anchored ascension. You remember at the top of the year I told you that was my theme for the year, anchored ascension. I’ve been focused on going deeper into my connection and alignment with the father in order to emerge at my next level.

Darnyelle [00:26:54]:
I truly believe that is the reason why this company will do 10 million this year. I don’t need external validation. I know who sent me. I know whose I am. And Jeremiah one and five says, before I was formed in my mother’s womb, God knew me and he approved me. My company is approved. It’s approved. Additionally, I’ve made a decision and I’ll share more about this in the future.

Darnyelle [00:27:22]:
I’m working out how I’m going to do it. But I’ve made a decision that I am shifting the way that we operate our business and what’s important to us this season that I am in. Things are changing and as a result of that, it was no longer necessary. Fingers in the air quotes that we do the Inc 5000 again because again, we’ve got two. We got a repeat two years in a row. And yes, I know, I’m well aware. My profit and loss statement demonstrates that my company is still generating at a level where we could be on the list. And that’s enough for me because I’ve already put a strategy in place that we’re leveraging as a company based on our standing.

Darnyelle [00:28:08]:
And for me in that strategy, the repeat was a part of that. I feel complete again. That doesn’t mean that I might not ever attempt to apply in the future. Who knows? But I just know that in this season it really wasn’t important for me to apply again because I have the last two years and that feels really, really good for me. Right now. In this season, I am more concerned about continuing to streamline my business and organization and the way that we work and who we serve so that we can bring more businesses to the million dollar mark. That’s more important to me right now. I want to continue to defy the statistics and I want to continue to shift and shape a new narrative of the normalcy of generating millions of dollars in a business and profiting millions of dollars a year in a business.

Darnyelle [00:29:01]:
That’s what’s more important and that’s where I’m going to focus my energy. It’s an external validation that I just don’t feel that I need in this season. And I hope this was helpful to you. I would love to hear your thoughts. Many of you who commented the 100, however many comments we had on that post that you wanted to hear my thoughts about the list. It makes me no less of a multimillion dollar business owner, CEO or multimillionaire. It makes me no less than the daughter of a king. It makes me no less of a CEO that runs a company that is shaking the planet because I did not submit this year.

Darnyelle [00:29:37]:
So if you decide to submit in the future and you make the list, or you made the list in 2024, again, I salute you. It is a big deal. Make a big deal about it, do all the things and create a strategy to support your business around having made the list. Because it’s technically paid media and because your business is going to be on Front street, you damn well sure better have a strategy that you’re going to leverage to maximize the publicity that comes out of getting on the list. Now, if you didn’t have a strategy, you made the list, or you intend to make the list and you’d like a strategy. I welcome the opportunity for us to have a session. I can do a consultation session for you and map out exactly how you can leverage your Inc 5000 win if you get on the list so that it can generate for you. I can tell you based on the tracking that we’ve done in our company over the last two years, the amount of revenue that we’ve generated that has been directly tied to being on the Inc 5000 in the two years that we were was more than multiple six figures, at least a quarter of a million dollars.

Darnyelle [00:30:47]:
And that’s just what I’m thinking about right now. If I actually went back and tracked some of the things that came up as a result of being at the Ink 5000 conference, connecting with people, that turned into speaking engagements, that turned into book sales and those types of things, it might even be more than that. So it’s not a bad thing. You should absolutely do it. But if you’re going to do it, you should have a strategy. And if I can help you to create that strategy, holla at your girl. You can shoot me a DM on Instagram and we can talk about what it would look like. You could also go to.

Darnyelle [00:31:15]:
I do vip days and consulting sessions. You can also go and learn about all of that if you’re interested in working with me. And maybe not even just for INK 5000, but just in general. At the time of this recording, I literally just did a VIP day yesterday, helped a client realize that they have a pipeline, a potential pipeline of $8.7 million, and to create a strategy of how to maximize that pipeline and actually be able to grow their business to multiple seven figures in a year. And nothing will bring me more joy than to help you to do the same thing. So I want to thank you for listening to my thoughts around why I did not submit for the Inc 5000 in 2024 and I would love to hear from you. If this episode helps you, if it serves you, if it gave you any food for thought or something that you’d like to consider and think about in the future, tag me in a story on Instagram demonstrating that you listen to this episode. Send me a DM and let’s have a conversation around how I might support you if you have a desire to get on the 5000, because I do think it’s a big deal.

Darnyelle [00:32:15]:
And if your business does $2 million or more, you absolutely should make an attempt to get on the list at least once. Thank you guys for listening, and I’ll see you next time. Take care. Thank you for joining me for the Move to Millions podcast. If this episode has impacted you in any way, would you please take a moment and rate and review? Doing so helps us to deepen our impact and expand our reach around the world. And if you are ready to start your very own Move to Millions, I highly recommend that you order your very own copy of my brand new best selling book, Move to Millions, the proven framework to become a million dollar CEO with grace and ease instead of hustle and grind. You can get your copy and our bonuses [email protected]. until next time.

Darnyelle [00:33:06]:
Remember, millions are your birthright and to access them you need only move. I’ll see you next time.