ADHD Entrepreneur Accelerator

Steve"But they looked great on paper...."

In this week's episode I describe the 3 stages of your business: Handcart, Locomotive and Rocket Ship.

1. How to reduce overwhelm by working on the right problems for your stage.

2. Why Handcart to Locomotive stage is the hardest transition to make

3. When Type V and Type E founder really need Type O's and Type B's

4. How to know if your early team will scale to the next stage

5. The one thing you need to focus on at each stage

In this episode of the rocket ship business academy. No matter what’s going on in our business, the real action is inside of us.

In this episode, I am reading from my book 33 Meditations for Seed Stage Founders. This is a book I wrote in 2020 when I gave myself a challenge to write a daily meditation on entrepreneurship - based on quotes from philosophers and thinkers who I admired.

This is Meditation #23, and the quote is from Terrance Mckenna. Terence McKenna was an American ethnobotanist and mystic who advocated the responsible use of naturally occurring psychedelic plants.

This quote caught my attention because it spoke to something that has struck over and over again in life and business. No matter what’s going on in our external circumstances, the real action is inside of us.

As a Founder, you’ve likely learned the important of metrics for your business. The thing is, there are so many metrics to choose from.

When I started out as a Founder, I believed that product innovation and brilliance was THE key to creating Rocket Ship success.

In this episode, you'll learn:

There's important wisdom packed into these 12 minutes -  you'll come away from this episode with a clear understanding of what you need to master to level up as a Founder.

There was a point during my first startup where I thought the whole thing was going to slide off the cliff. This wasn't in the early days - it was later on after we had momentum. We had a stupendously bad quarter and lost over $250k, which was catastrophic for us. It felt to me like we were really strapped and extremely thin on resources. I brought in a contract COO who help me right the ship and one of the biggest lessons I learned from him was that we had so many more resources than I thought - they were just on the other side of some very hard decisions.

In every Founder journey there is a moment (sometimes more than one) where you find yourself at the bottom of the well. Frustrated, burnt out, feeling defeated, isolated, knowing you have to keep going, but having a hard time seeing how.

In this 9-minute episode:

I share my own experience at the bottom of the well

Why I call them "Swimming pool moments"'

Why these moments are crucial for you

3 things you need to do when you are at the bottom of the well to get yourself moving and turn these painful moments into catalysts for your success. 

How to climb out!

Hiring. It's easily one of the biggest challenges Founders experience as they scale their business. In this episode, I respond to a subscriber's question about their challenges in hiring the right people - and reveal 3 secrets to help you hire better. 

While nobody bats .1000 in hiring, I've learned some very hard won lessons over the years. I cover the 3 most important things I've learned to to help you hire better - even in this tough hiring environment. In this packed 12 minutes I cover:

You'll come away from this episode looking at your hiring process in a whole new light!

It's often seen as a badge of honor for a Founder to work insane hours. Of course, long hours and intense effort is an inevitable part of the Founder journey. However, there is a point where throwing more hours at your business starts to work against you. In this episode I describe the ways grinding tons of hours starts costing Founders - and how to recognize when your efforts are work for you or against you. 

You get the Founder title by starting something amazing. You also get the CEO title, but the reality is you have to keep re-earning that title until you've made at every stage of the company. Founder to CEO is one of the most challenging transitions for Founders to navigate successfully, as it demands shedding old models of working and embracing behaviors that sometimes feel counter to what got you this far. But often it's a Founders' ability to make this transition that makes the difference between a promising company breaking out or languishing.

Going from Seed Stage Founder to confident Growth Stage CEO requires Founders make 3 key transformations. In this episode I describe these 3 transformations and how to navigate them.