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How to Grow Your Company With Integrity

How to Grow Your Company With Integrity

Integrity, intentionality & intuition

Roslyn McLarty
February 04, 2026

👋 Hi my name is Roslyn, I’m a 2x founder and executive coach. I help founders fall in love with building their companies again. Learn about working 1:1 here.

Hi there,

I bet one thing you’ve been thinking about this year is how to grow your business, right?

That totally makes sense. New year, new goals, new growth targets.

And growth…let’s be honest, it can be a loaded topic. And one we attach a lot of our value to as founders. It’s an area that can feel heavy. That may come with a lot of external pressure (hello investors) or comparison. And it can also really test our alignment to our values.

So how do we grow in a way that is thoughtful? That leverages our gifts? That gives us energy? That aligns with our mission, vision and values? That actually works?

This newsletter was inspired by a coaching session I had with a founder earlier this week who was seeking answers to some of these questions.

So this one is for her, for all my clients and all of you. But it’s also for me — past and present versions.

I oversaw growth at my last company and man was it challenging. And now I’m trying to grow my current business in a way that really feels really good.

This is the newsletter I needed to read back then — and the one I’m applying now as I grow Within.

So today we’ll get into:

My honest take on why growth can feel so hard
A framework for creating brand, marketing, and sales strategies that are values-aligned and feel good to execute

Let’s jump in.

And also if you’re in NYC, I’d love to see you at our next Within Walk! We’ll be brainstorming together on this topic of growth!

How to Grow With Integrity

Growth is complex.

It asks us to hold opposites at the same time: creativity and rigor, intuition and data, vision and execution. It requires imagination, experimentation, and adaptability. But also discipline, feedback loops, and an honest understanding of how your offering actually improves someone’s life.

When you can meet that complexity with curiosity and openness, growth can feel expansive, and dare I say, even fun.

But growth can also be really freaking hard.

As founders, many of us attach huge meaning to it. We tell ourselves that if we’re not growing fast enough, something is wrong: with our business, our strategy, or us. Sometimes that pressure comes from investors. Sometimes it’s self-imposed. Often, it’s both.

We start asking questions:

What does it mean about me if I can’t crack the growth code?

Are we falling behind the market?

Are we building the right thing?

Under that pressure, it can be easy to make decisions we later regret. We spend too aggressively before product-market fit is really there. We prioritize volume over quality. We chase growth that looks good on paper but isn’t actually in integrity, eroding our team’s morale and trust.

I know this terrain intimately. At my last company The GIST, alongside leading operations and finance, I also ran growth, and played a meaningful role in scaling our newsletter to over one million subscribers. I lived inside these questions: What does it say about me and our company if we aren’t growing fast enough? Who will I be letting down? What will our investors, our partners, and my co-founders think? Will everyone find out I’m not actually up for this?

I also know how discouraging it can feel to get stuck relying on channels you know aren’t right long-term, repeating execution that drains your energy, making decisions that don’t inspire you because you’re afraid to slow down long enough to be honest.

So what’s the alternative?

The alternative is approaching growth with integrity. In other words, creating space for a strategy that’s aligned with your mission, values, and actual energy to emerge (instead of forcing one based on fear, pressure or trends).

That means listening more closely to your intuition and leveraging your team’s strengths. And very importantly, doing some inner work so growth isn’t being driven by deficiency or self-worth. (I wish I’d known how to do this!).

Because when growth becomes a marker of whether you’re “good enough,” it’s pretty much impossible to access your deepest creativity or wisdom.

10 Steps to Grow With Integrity

If you want, make a copy of the extended worksheet, grab a coffee or tea, and give yourself time to think honestly on the below questions. This is a great exercise to work through with your team as well!

1. How Do You Want to Grow This Year?

What does success look like and feel like in your body when you imagine this year going well?
What are you no longer willing to do in the name of growth?
Where have you historically abandoned your values in branding, marketing, or sales and what did it cost you?
How can you create space for your growth strategy to emerge this year, instead of forcing it through trends or old patterns?

2. Reconnect With Your Mission, Vision, and Values

If you’ve already updated these recently, feel free to paste them in. If not, this is a good moment to revisit them.

Vision

What's the bigger idea you’re advancing through your work, the world you’re seeking to create.

Mission

Why do you exist, and how do you operate in service of that vision?

Values

What 3–5 values guide your decisions, especially when things feel uncertain or uncomfortable?

Then reflect:

How does each value show up in your marketing?
How does it show up in your sales interactions?
What does this value require of you when it’s inconvenient?
What behaviors would violate this value, even if they drove growth?

3. Restate Your Annual Goals

How are you progressing your mission this year?

4. Define Your Ideal Customer or Client

It can be helpful to think about 4–5 real people who closely fit your ICP as you answer these.

Who do you serve, and what do you know about them? (demographics, psychographics, location, lifestyle, interests)
What means the most to them?
What do they fear?
What problems are you solving for them?
Why are they drawn to you/your company specifically?

5. Clarify Your Brand

What is the core idea or truth at the center of your brand?
What voice and values are present in how the brand expresses itself?
What emotional benefits do people experience when engaging with you/your brand?
What functional benefits do you provide?
What would genuinely feel like a loss if your brand disappeared tomorrow?
Through which features and attributes do you deliver on your brand promise?

And also…

What is your unique point of view or “take” you stand for?
How do you differentiate in:
- What you offer
- How you offer it
- Who you are as the person or company offering it

6. Design Your Marketing & Growth Strategy

What are the 3–4 biggest levers for hitting your goals this year?
What core messaging are you excited to lean into?
What would feel energizing, fun and sustainable in how you engage your audience/customers?

If content is part of your strategy:

What are the 3–4 core content pillars you want to speak to consistently?
How do these pillars reflect your mission, vision, and values?

Consider:

How can you serve or support people before they ever buy from you?
How do you want people to feel as they interact with your brand?
What people, brands, or communities do you feel inspired to collaborate with?
What information do you need to feel confident in your decisions about growth? (e.g. data, customer feedback, gut feeling)

If you’re engaging in paid growth:

What are you willing and able to spend to acquire a customer or client?
How does that compare to your expected lifetime value?
How will you define a high-quality customer or client beyond conversion?

Go deeper:

What parts of marketing & growth feel energizing versus activating or draining for you and your team?
What helps you feel grounded before and after founder visibility moments?
How do you want to relate to metrics without letting them define your worth?
Who is the growth really serving?

7. Design Your Sales Strategy

What channels and messaging lovingly move someone from marketing into a sales interaction?
What does your sales process actually look like?
How can you make the sales experience valuable, even if someone doesn’t buy?
How do you want people to feel after interacting with you?

And also:

What are your non-negotiables for saying yes to a client or customer?
What signs tell you it’s a loving no?

8. Post-Sale and Long-Term Relationships

What do you do after the sale to help people feel confident in their decision and supported?
How do you want people to talk about working with you a year later?
What kind of ongoing relationship feels aligned, if any?

9. Systems and Team

Where is your involvement essential versus optional?
Where are there opportunities to let go of control?
Where are you operating in your zone of genius, and where could others support?
What systems support your branding, marketing, and sales and help you stay in your zone of genius?

10. Ongoing Reflection

How will you know this strategy is working?
How will you know it still feels aligned?
What signals tell you it’s time to adjust?
What do you want to revisit quarterly?

Within Walks

Join us for our next Within Walk for female founders this Friday, February 7th at 8am.

This week we’ll be continuing this conversation about growth and reflecting on these questions:

What is your current relationship to the growth of your company?
When you think about growing your company, what emotions do you notice? What parts? Thoughts or stories?
What would feel like a genuinely inspiring, energizing or fun way to grow this year? What would feel more aligned with who you are now?
Which founders, brands, or companies inspire you in how they show up online and in the world? What about their approach resonates with you?
What are you no longer willing to sacrifice in the name of growth (in your business, your values, your relationships, or your wellbeing)?

PS, if it’s quite cold, we’ll stay inside the cafe and I’ll lead a discussion around our theme instead of walking outside!

RSVP here.

I hosted a very intimate female founder gathering in a yurt inside an office in Williamsburg two nights ago. We meditated, we laughed, we went deep, we reflected and supported one another.

And it felt SO aligned for me.

Creating community for founders is an idea that dropped into my awareness last year. It didn’t fully make sense at the time, and admittedly I was scared I might “not do it well enough.”

But damn, it feels good.

It’s also been a powerful reminder that I don’t need to fit neatly into the box of “coach.” There are so many other ways I want — and in fact need — to express myself through my business. I love variety. I want to have an impact beyond only 1:1 work. And the beautiful thing is, they’re complementary. Bringing my clients and other purpose-led founders together has been healing and supportive in ways that are different from what I can offer in a 1:1 container.

So this is your reminder that it’s never too late to listen to your intuition about what would make you feel alive and energized.

I’ll likely go deeper on this in a future newsletter, so stay tuned. 💚

1:1 Coaching: If you’re curious about how coaching can support you on the spiritual path that is entrepreneurship, you can book a free coaching consultation.
Walk with us: Join for our next Within Walk.
Let’s be friends: on LinkedIn and Instagram. I share more startup content and what’s going on behind the scenes there.
Finally, tell me how you liked this newsletter. I read every piece of feedback.